An Ancient Defender (Rewrite is out)
by The Mage of The Beginning
Summary: Radiant and Dire. Two forces locked in never-ending war. But all things have an end, even the two Ancients were aware of the unavoidable dusk. In an act of unified desperation, both Ancients sealed themselves and their soldiers into a host that would be sure to attract enemies. And who better than the Crimson Dragon emperor himself. BAMF!slightly disturbed!Issei. IsseixHarem
1. Chapter 1

AN: First fanfiction. No idea how this system works but eh I'll learn as I go. Constructive criticism will be appreciated. Flamers will be ignored, Violently... I wonder how that would work?

Chapter 1 – The nightmare begins

* * *

Long ago, in a dimension hidden between all others a war was raging. A war between two alien forms of energy know as the Dire and Radiant Ancients. Each ancient seeked to end the other and called upon five soldiers to do their will, soldiers based upon the greatest of warriors that they drew from the worlds around them.

But the ancients themselves were immortal entities, born from an old and forgotten alien power know only to themselves and as such would simply regenerate when destroyed. And destroy they did, both sides had fallen countless times only to come back with the next turn of day, a one year, one century, one millennium the war endured until time itself forgot how long it had raged.

But all things had to end, and the hidden dimension that housed the ancients was breaking under the strain of the battle. The ancients knew that if it did collapse then they would be spread across the void, too thinly spread to form again. In desperation, they tried to stop the war but for many aeons it had raged and even if they did stop it would only be a matter of time. As the sky began to shatter, the ancients in one desperate unified act called all their soldiers into their vast bodies and flung them and themselves through the kaleidoscopic dimensional gap in search of a place capable of hosting them. They found one. A young human child only 5 years of age. One Issei Hyoudou.

But the ancients had sensed on their way to their new host many other energy signatures. Signatures that were strangely reminiscent of their own respective energies.

That would have to wait however, it would appear that their new found host was in the process of getting the crap beaten out of him.

* * *

Issei wasn't sure what was happening. One moment he was desperately trying to defend his friend Irina from some bullies with his body when something strange happened. He was closing his eyes as he saw the front bully's fist near the end of its orbit towards his head when suddenly his body burned.

Like fire and ice were coursing through his veins, he crumpled to his knees mouth open in a silent scream causing the fist to fly wide. The others could only look on in horror as Issei clawed at his chest trying to stop the fire. Suddenly he stopped. The bullies looked on at the collapsed boy in trepidation.

 **RUN**

A screeching cry echoed in the would be bully's ears, like rusted grating metal it ground against their minds.

 **RUN**

The boys fled, as though a demon was hot on their tails. Meanwhile, a completely oblivious Irina had been lucky enough to be spared by the voice and looked on in confusion at her would be attackers retreating forms. Suddenly noticing her defenders prone form on the ground she quickly gathered her wits and started to drag Issei in the direction of her house as fast as she could.

* * *

Mindscape

Humid. That was what Issei described mentally of his surroundings as he lay on the ground. Sitting up blearily he slowly took stock of his surroundings. "Is this a...jungle? How did I get here? And where is- IRINA!" Bolting to his feet, he looked around franticly as though his English friend might simply hiding under the surrounding foliage.

'She is safe little one'

Whirling around in surprise, he came face to face with two...clouds? Like smoke, the two vaguely shaped figures stood before his short 5 year old form. Hovering just above the ground, one was of the purest blue accented with soft silver light. The other was a harsh contrast and bore a jagged crimson form with deep orange accenting light.

"Who are you?", the question slipped from his lips as he looked on in wonder at the two alien beings before him.

'I am the Radiant' spoke the blue one, its voice seemed to curl in twisted vines around Issei's body.

'I am the Dire', said the Radiant's crimson counterpart with a voice that seemed to echo cavernously.

And then in eerie unison ' **We are the Ancients, The Forerunners, the Two that are One, the One that is All.** '

Then in a much softer voice, 'And we are you little one.'

"Wha-what do you mean you're me?" he asked in confusion and slight apprehension.

'We are not of your world little one, we are from far beyond the genesis' came the Radiant.

'Our home was destroyed due to a conflict between us', continued the Dire.

'The sky was beginning to shatter, our soldiers were dying.'

'We had no choice but to cooperate and escape with our armies to another realm'

'We came to your world to find a new place to occupy'

'A place that would be able to withstand our presence'

'One that would allow us to keep fighting'

'We found you little one'

'Defending your friend'

'So we came to you and aided you'

'And now you are our host' they finished together.

* * *

Issei was in shock. His five year old mind struggling to analyse what the Ancients had said until after standing in shock for a few minutes he finally managed to get out, "So you're both a... part of me now. Right?"

'Correct little one' answered the Radiant.

'More specifically we now reside here within the depths of your soul' added the Dire.

Wide eyed, he looked around with new wonder at his surroundings.

Then another more pressing thought occurred to Issei. "What do you mean so that you can keep fighting?".

No sooner had the words left his lips, a low, echoing blast from a horn sounded across the canopy. The sound to battle, the rallying voice of command. The Call of War.

Suddenly the once silent jungle was alive with noise and from the gaps within the trees, Issei could see green and red creatures tearing at each other, trying with unbridled savagery to kill the opposing side. Body parts were hacked away in sprays of gore by bloodstained blades held by equally bloodstained wielders while bolts of green and yellow light were exchanged by four staff wielding creatures towards the back of each side with devastating effect.

Then a new fighter entered the fray. Clad in crimson plated armour and wielding a layered tower shield in one hand and a red guarded great sword in the other, he charged into the fray and to Issei's shock gave a guttural roar and released a great breath of billowing flames from the mouth of his plated helm. The green creatures were left untouched by the flames, but the red ones cried in agony as the flames hit, the scent of burning flesh filling the air.

Tearing his eyes away from the gruesome sight he collapsed to his knees in front of the Ancients and promptly emptied his lunch onto the ground where he continued to dry heave long after his stomach was empty. Finally, eyes wide with horror and revulsion at the scene of bloody carnage he had witnessed he finally worked up the will to lift his head and ask, "H-how c-could they?" and succumbed back to retching as his traumatised mind also became aware of the fact that this was inside his own soul.

'It is the way it has always been little one.' was the Radiant's level reply.

'We were cursed to continuously fight each other so that our attention would not turn to the other universes outside of our own.' elaborated the Dire.

'But then our prison broke.'

'We were freed but started to disintegrate in the void'

'And now you have a choice.' Spoke both the Ancients.

'A choice?' Issei said having somewhat composed himself.

'You are now our gaoler, the holder and a soldier of our cursed battle.' explained the Dire.

'We will train you, you will learn from the greatest soldiers to have existed and gain the power to not just fight for us but to defend us and by proxy yourself.'

Issei was torn. While getting trained by the two beings would give him power, the images of the rampaging knight and the bloody clash were still fresh in his mind. Suddenly a different picture came into his mind, Irina was laying on the ground defenceless behind him as he attempted to shield her from the three bullies.

'No' he thought finding his resolve, 'I will never allow that to happen again. No matter the cost.'

'Plus' he added lecherously 'Maybe I will finally get to see some oppai'

"I accept" he said happily steeling his resolve (and his inner perversion) as he faced the ancients.

'Then rejoice Hyoudou Issei' declared both, their voices echoing around him.

'So wha-' began Issei only...

 **PAIN**

Unbidden a cry tore itself from his throat.

No sooner had the words left their non-existent lips, a deep smouldering pain made itself violently known to Issei's back and for the third time that day he collapsed to the ground only this time his descent was accompanied by a tearing scream from his own throat. He rolled around squealing in agony and to his morbid fascination saw two sets of lines slowly snaking across the skin of his arms. Finally after what seemed like hours of torture, the fire in his veins dispersed and he lay on his back panting in relief.

Bringing his arms to his face he saw two patterns now inscribed on them. The Radiant coloured set was ...flowing, like a wispy curl of mist or a curling ivy it traced itself around his arms like a vine splitting spiralling into strange glyphs and and disappeared past his shoulders. The other by contrast bore the crimson tone of the Dire and was harsh and jagged bending at sharp angles and formed what could be described as circuit patterns. Like it's Radiant counterpart, it too wound its way up past his shoulders. The marks were spread all over his body but only one was on each side of his body, Radiant on his right and Dire on his left.

'The marks are the proof of your pledge,' the Radiant said to his unasked question. 'They allow you to access your power and in time access our own powers.'

'But now you must wake little one, your friend is waiting,' said the Dire.

And with that, Issei felt the ground open up beneath him and everything fell to black around him.

* * *

Issei opened his eyes blearily and then immediately closed them as the setting sun light stung them.

'Uggh my head' was his first coherent thought immediately followed by a more desperate chorus of 'IRINA!' as he bolted upright.

"Issei"

He turned his head left so fast that one of his vertebrae cricked and came to face the eyes of the very person he had just thought about.

"ISSEI!" the action was immediately followed by a viscous hug from the aforementioned person as she hugged him tightly in her grip.

At first he was a bit perturbed at being hugged by a guy, but then he was suddenly acutely aware of the two bumps pushing onto him. 'Holy shit she's a girl!?' screamed his mind as he came to the ground breaking conclusion. He pushed that aside however in favour of comforting his friend.

"Are you okay?" he asked softly rubbing small circles on her back and getting a nod in response. "What happened?" he asked causing his long-time friend and partner in crime to bring her head round to face him.

"Don't you remember? You scared the bullies off and then collapsed on the ground, you've been asleep for hours." she said burying her head back into his shoulder as the memory of her secret crush spasming on the ground rushed back to her. Normally, the feeling of having a girl press into him would send his mind into the gutter but even a pervert like him had standards, and he would sooner die than take advantage of an emotionally drained girl. So he held her, let her confirm that he was alive and constantly whispered "It's all right" to her.

Finally, after what seemed like hours she calmed down and proceeded to fall asleep on Issei's shoulder. Noticing, he tried to remove himself form her grip only for her to pull him back stubbornly. Realising that any further attempts at extraction were futile, he sighed with a small smile gracing his lips and in a rare moment of non-perversion he reached down and hoisted her legs up onto the bed with him earning a brief frown followed by a purr of contentment. After checking that his friend was comfortable, he lay down and let sleep claim him and drifted off peacefully.

Unknown to both, both of their parents had been silently observing them having heard the commotion. Closing the door quietly so as to not alert the slumbering children they smiled at each other. 'They'll be fine' was exchanged wordlessly between them.

Unfortunately, for Issei it would be the last peaceful sleep he would be getting for a while.

* * *

Next day

"Issei I have something to tell you." Irina began, broaching the subject.

"What is it?" Issei replied looking up from his book as he sensed the seriousness of her tone. He had recovered completely from what the adults could tell and had been up and about with Irina all morning.

"My family is moving to England." she looked down unable to meet his eyes.

"Oh.." was his eloquent response. "How long," he asked morosely after a few moments of contemplation.

"Tonight," her voice cracked slightly at the end and tears threatened to fall from her violet eyes. The sight of his friend looking so vulnerable in front of him triggered something in Issei. Standing up, he crossed the room in two strides until he was standing in front of her. Gently, he tilted brought her head up to face him and with his other hand wiped away the tears from her cheeks.

"Irina no matter how where you are, you will always be my friend." he stated with a firmness that he didn't know he possessed. Then in an act that surprised himself, he placed a soft kiss on her brow.

Then the moment passed and like the children they were, they turned away blushing furiously.

"Issei?" said Irina from over his shoulder.

"Yes?" he responded hesitantly only to feel a pair of slender arms circle around him and a head of brown hair appeared on his shoulder.

"Thank you."

And no more words were needed.

* * *

Time skip 10 years (canon begins)

"My name is Yuuma, and I-I-like you. Please go out with me." she stuttered hands clasped and violet eyes shut as her black bangs framed her face, the very image of teenage nervousness.

'Holy crap a girl wants to go out with me. ME of all people.' was running through Issei's head. The thought was immediately followed up with an equally fast 'Wait what?' as his brief excitement transitioned into bewilderment.

Issei was a part of what was know to the school populace as "the perverted trio", an aptly given title considering the actions of the group which ranged from peeping to verbally open declarations of perversion. So Issei was currently confused as to why an obvious bombshell of a girl was bothering with him.

Meanwhile Yuuma was still holding her expression of nervous embarrassment only now there was a bit of perturbation mixed in as well as she watched her targets facial features shift from shock to joy and then to confusion within the span of a few seconds.

"Alright who dared you?" broke her out of her musing as Issei came to the only logical conclusion he could think of.

"What?" she said losing a bit of her composure to confusion.

"There is no way on god's green earth that a girl like you would just ask ME of all people out, me the 'self-proclaimed-harem-king' and member of the perverted trio." he explained sinking down into depression as he admitted the cruel truth. Contrary to popular belief, he was not as blind to his reputation as others made him to be. Didn't mean he liked to admit it though.

"Ugh" now she had a conundrum. How would she manage to convince him to go through with her plan. Fortunately fate had other plans.

"But then again, this might be the closest thing to a date I'll ever get in my life so I may as well take advantage of it." he continued, "So how about Sunday then ten o'clock?" he proposed much to her relief.

And so it begins.

* * *

Ten o'clock Sunday. The air was clear in the crisp morning wind, the sun was shining brightly and shoppers were already mingling in the streets. Issei was already there, dressed casually almost brimming with excitement.

"Issei!"

He looked up to see his at least temporary girlfriend heading towards him and he couldn't help but appreciate the way her bust bounced with each step.

"Have you been waiting long?" she asked with a small smile.

"No not at all, I only just got here actually." he replied cheering inside as he finally got to say a line he never thought that he would get the opportunity to say. "Shall we be off then?"

"Lets" she replied cheerfully.

From there the date panned out normally, they went shopping of course where Issei bought her a bracelet as a gift and they both went to get lunch at a nearby café.

As they came out of the café though, a woman in devil cosplay suddenly pranced in front of him and handed him an odd flyer. "For you sir." she said before prancing off again. Looking down at the flyer, he saw an odd circle pattern emblazoned on it with the phrase "your wish will be granted" below it in curling letters. Frowning he hurriedly stuffed it into his pocket and continued on with his girlfriend.

Finally, the day rolled to an end and Yuuma had picked a nearby park to end their date.

* * *

The scene was like a painting, the dying rays of light sparkled in the fountains clear water and wind blew comfortingly through the surrounding shrubbery. And Yumma was facing him with her back to the sun, a halo framing her figure. "Ise" she said getting his heart rate to shoot up.

"Yes?" he said with growing anticipation. 'Is she going to kiss me now?' he mentally giggled only for the more cynical voice of his psyche to speak up with 'Are he friends finally going give up the gig now?'.

"Could you do something for me?" she continued, never letting the smile fall from her face. 'Here it is. Here it is!' Issei chanted, mentally shoving the cynical voice back while nodding his head.

"Die for me." and all pretences of pretending left her face. Her form grew and shifted, her clothes tearing to give way to dark leather straps that barely qualified as clothing and black elbow-length gloves covered her hands. Finally, a pair of feathery black wings tore from her back.

Raising her right hand, light coalesced and formed a pink lance of energy. She drew her hand back to throw as Issei looked on.

'Die for me'. As soon as he heard those words he was in another place.

Flashback

 _His body was broken and bleeding as burning arrows punctured and seared his flesh. Tears of pain and horror were pouring from his eyes as he desperately tried to crawl away._

 _Clink_

 _The sound caused his heart to stop._

 _Clink_

 _He had to run!_

 _Clink_

 _But his legs were bent and broken._

 _KKKKKK_

 _The sound of a bowstring being drawn taunt._

 _TWANG_

 _Unbidden a scream tore from his bloody lips as another infernal arrow pierced his body causing him to cough up even more blood._

 _" **Ha ha ha"**_

 _The sound of his tormentors raspy and grating voice rang out as his boot clad footfalls neared his form. He felt his stomach turn to lead as he looked up into the burning eyes- no the two infernal fires that were burning in the exposed skull of his pursuer._

 _Clinkz, The Bone Fletcher had come._

 _Issei could feel his skin melt as the heat of the skeletal archer's flames neared, closer and closer until his spiked jawbone was inches away from Issei's face._

 _" **Die for me"** he intoned with a voice of endlessly burning hatred as he devoured Issei, body and soul._

Flashback end

"Die trash and know that it was I, Raynare of the Grigori that killed you"

SPLAT

The light spear tore through his torso in a pile of blood and gore leaving a hole the size of his fist in its wake.

"Sorry sweetie" he vaguely heard Yuuma, no Raynare mockingly say as he fell to the ground. "But you were a threat to us if you managed to awaken your sacred gear so if you want to hate someone, hate the god that gave you your sacred gear."

He felt his strength fade as the life poured from the hole. At that moment when fear began to eclipse his mind, Issei Hyoudou went away. And another took the reins.

Suddenly his 'corpse' started twitching and to Raynare's shock began to stand jerkily on its feet head dangling loosely downwards.

"So the trash still has some fight in him eh." she sneered gathering her wits "Well another one should finish the job" she punctuated the statement with another slightly larger spear of light...

...only for it to be sliced apart effortlessly by the large and curved double-edged blade that had not been in his hands a second ago. Eyes widening in disbelief she quickly gained some distance with her wings and took to the skies.

"So you managed to awaken your sacred gear huh? Well it doesn't matter, human trash like you can never stand up to the might of a FALLEN ANGEL!" she roared forming two more spears.

SQELCH

Blood came to her lips. "What?" she uttered as a stab of pain made itself know to her stomach. Looking down in shock at the pitch black dagger of pulsating darkness had pierced her torso. Looking further she saw that it had somehow left a trail of shadows in its wake, a trail that lead to the feet of her victim.

Then he looked up.

The surroundings began to crumble as she gazed in horror at the now eerily glowing blue eyes of her victim as the scenery finally gave way to a black void.

 **An endless plane. The horizon of reality.**

A voice that echoed around her like a coiled snake hissing with venom spoke.

 **The cusp of the universe.**

Purple was beginning to creep up Issei's arm from where he held the strange blade leaving dark violet metal where it touched.

 **An ancient shadow of loneliness.**

She began to turn, attempted to fly away from the approaching entity only to discover with no small amount of horror that it was following the shadowy path that the dagger trailed.

 **The solitary figure. The lonely beholder.**

He was getting closer, close enough that she could see the purple armour creep past his shoulder and across his chest.

 **I am the Tormentor. The Haunter.**

The transformation was almost complete, all that remained was for the last part of his face to be covered.

 **I am Mercurial the Spectre.**

The last of his face disappeared and only the Spectre remained.

 **And I am your Haunt.**

As soon as the line was uttered her pursuer suddenly appeared in front of her, bladed hand raised to strike her down.

"NO!" She vainly tried to raise a spear in defence.

 **Fall.**

The violet blade cleaved through her spear like it wasn't there, the guard smashed into her shoulder with crushing force and sent her falling to the earth.

It was a surreal sight, a purple phantom shrouded in violet mist smiting a black angel down to earth.

CRASH

She landed without grace in an explosion of concrete, her clothes torn and wings broken having cushioned her fall somewhat. She looked up, and saw the Spectre landing gracefully in a flurry of mist its eyes never leaving her.

It was cold, she realised with sudden clarity much colder than it should have been in the warm evening air. Mustering her strength she managed to tilt her head to face the source of the chill though whether the action was out of morbid fascination or survival instinct she did not know. That was all swept away however when she saw the Spectre and immediately regretted her choice.

Luminous smoke had begun to stream in thick droves from the glowing eyes of the Spectre, cold frigid smoke that sapped the remaining strength from her limbs. But then it began to whisper. Wispy figures of curling mist with the same cyan eyes as the Spectre.

Then as though receiving a command, they all turned to dace her downed form glaring maliciously. Sweat started to pour from her body as they started to close in, gaining features as they walked. Someone was screaming in the distance, it was her she realised as another scream tore from her throat now crying as she started to recognise the figures as her former victims even her current comrades were stalking towards her with murderous intent. She closed her eyes as tears dripped from her cheeks preparing to finally face her creator.

"No."

A voice rang out causing the smoky phantoms to halt their advance. The word was not shouted nor was it intended as a command yet the iron weight of authority behind it was undeniably there.

"That is enough, Mercurial" it continued. This time she was able to pin point it to the floating visage of the Spectre yet its lips had not moved.

The Spectre seemed to disagree, the hateful glare never leaving it's face as it stared balefully at her. But nevertheless it seemed grudgingly give in as the phantoms dissolved back into cold mist and the surroundings swam back into view. Then with a hiss of escaping air the Spectre's form dissolved into mist to reveal a newly disillusioned Issei breathing heavily as the toll of his power showed.

Finally he seemed to regain his breath and then noticed the extent of her injuries. Slowly he began to walk over.

Raynare's eyes widened as her supposed target walked closer. Bracing, she closed her eyes as he knelt down and placed his hand on her wound, expression unreadable.

But instead of pain a warm sensation began to envelop her, and she could feel the aches fade away. Opening her eyes she looked up to see her would be victim's hand wreathed in golden flames as her flesh knitted itself back together and the tiredness of her body was burned away.

What he said next was the last thing she expected to come from his mouth.

"Sorry."

She had almost sneered at the pity in his tone but any mocking words she might have had died in her throat when she saw his eyes. Guilt was the first thing she noticed, regret as well was lurking in the brown orbs underlain by a deep loathing not at her but at himself for what he had almost done. Yet for one instance, encompassing all of that she saw the eyes of a broken man, she had only seen the same look once on the face of her leader Azazel right after the war had finally ended; as he fell to his knees before the thousands of bodies that were once his comrades.

When the last of the gaping wound had vanished he stood up not noticing the look in her eye.

"Go" his voice was a dead monotone. She stood slowly, cautiously from the ground but did not move. "Please." he was pleading now, "Do not force me to do something permanent."

And with that he ran.

* * *

For how long he ran he did not know but after what seemed like an eternity as the events of a few minutes ago played through his head he noticed that he was back in his room. A cough suddenly wracked his throat as he fell coughing but instead of saliva golden sparks sprayed from his lips and smouldered on his carpet.

"Damn it." he said as he realised how close he had come to ending an actual life.

 **[You are not to blame Issei]** a deep voice not un-similar to the Dire Ancient whispered consolingly. He looked down to the back of his left hand where a pulsing green orb had appeared. **[You reacted on instinct. There is no crime in defending yourself.]** it continued consolingly.

He sigh and looked at the floor where the embers had dulled to a deep orange for a few minutes before looking back up. "Thanks Ddraig." he said and proceeded to lay on his bed and close his eyes. The Ancients were there waiting for him as he fell through the glassy sky of his soul.

* * *

Meanwhile at the occult research clubroom.

The circle was silent.

The buxom redhead that stood on its perimeter was equally silent as she waited. It had been hours since her familiar had handed Issei one of their summoning fliers yet the connecting circle had let to light up to announce its usage.

She sighed, not in boredom but sadness and disappointment. "Akeno, please inform Sona of Issei's demise." she called to her queen.

"Yes Buchou." she replied uncharacteristically solemn as she went to relay the message of her kouhai's supposed passing.

* * *

The next day, Issei was for the most part back to his normal perverted self or as normal as one could be after a near death encounter. Shaking his head clear of the prior days events, he stepped into homeroom just in time to hear; "...while he may have been a pervert, it was a great tragedy for him to have his life ended so- Issei-san!" she exclaimed in shock as he fully stepped into the room drawing the gaze of the rest of the class. "How are you here!?" she said non too softly for his comfort.

He looked up at her quizzically. "This is my homeroom. Why wouldn't I be here?" was his confused response as he walked towards his usual seat.

Only to pause when he saw the white funeral chrysanthemums that someone had placed on his desk. For a long moment no-one spoke until suddenly, without warning he started to laugh. It was not the perverted giggle that the school populace had grown accustomed to, no it was a bitter mocking laugh that seem so so wrong coming from the self-proclaimed harem king. 'Oh the irony' he thought mockingly to himself as he gazed upon the snow white blooms.

He was abruptly interrupted by the sound of the door slamming open as a puffing Rias Gremory stood there.

"You." she stated "Are coming with me." and yanked him from class without a second thought.

Said class had boarded the same train of thought since he had first walked in. A train that had then proceeded to crash in a poof of pixie dust and turn into a magical ostrich.

* * *

He could feel the Dire in them. He was seated in the old school building which coincidentally was the dwelling of the famed Occult Research Club comprised of most of the schools top idols. Seated to the left of him was the short white haired mascot of the academy, one Toujou Koneko who was working away at a plate of sweets. To his right was the Prince and Pretty boy, the blond and charming Kiba Yuuto whom almost all the other males despised with a passion.

Finally, sitting directly opposite him were the two great 'Onee-samas' of the academy, Rias Gremory and the black haired yamto nadeshiko Himejima Akeno.

Had the circumstances been different he would have savoured (and maybe drooled a little) the experience but given the way that they were all looking at him he was more than a little concerned. Seeing as no-one appeared to wanted to broach the silence, he decided to make the first move.

"So."

The word seemed much louder than it should have been in the small room.

"Why am I here and should I be afraid for my chastity or is that just me?"

"Pervert." The word was more of a statement of fact than a quip and the blank face of Koneko only helped to reinforce the effect. He winced at that particular truth causing his usual perverted demeanour to slip momentarily.

"You are Hyoudou Issei correct?" It was Rias that spoke this time.

"Yes?" he answered it questioningly.

She leant forwards hands clasped under her chin. "What are you?"

"Excuse me?"

"How did you survive the Fallen Angel?"

All pretences of pretending left his face. So they knew that he was being targeted, that meant one of two things; one they wanted him dead or two they were trying to observe him. Evaluating the options he concluded that it was probably both and that caution would be his best bet.

Meanwhile his sudden shift in expression had startled Rias slightly. From what she had garnered from his reputation, he was an irredeemable pervert with an obsession with boobs.

"Fallen Angel you say." he said with deliberate slowness and scepticism in his tone.

"Uuurgh" she groaned into her hands, she really didn't want to deal with this now after the mad sprint she had made to his classroom.

"Uhfufufu aren't you a stubborn little kouhai." came the melodic voice of Akeno as she watch her king's plight with open amusement, violet eyes gleaming.

"Alright I'll get right to the point then." she stood up, an action mirrored by the other club members. "Everyone here is a devil." and with that black leathery wings popped out from there backs in all their glory.

Looking at Issei she gauged his reaction as he took in the spectacle. Form her experience, she had expected fear, surprise or even denial of their appearance. She was wholly unprepared for the look of curiosity that instead occupied his face.

"Well then," he said at last eyes latching onto her own emerald orbs. "What would a group of devils want with me?" he asked completely calm.

They re-seated themselves, and she procured a crimson chess piece and set it down on the table in front of him. A pawn according to his limited knowledge of chess.

"There are three factions Issei, the Angels, The Devils and the fallen. During the great war between them all three sides suffered extreme losses. So to help repopulate the devil species, we created these; Evil Pieces." she gestured to the crimson pawn on the table. "Are you familiar with chess Issei?" she asked.

"I know enough." he said.

"Well the Evil Piece or as we call it peerage system is very similar, the 'king' of the peerage can use the other pieces to reincarnate other species into devils as their servants." Understanding flashed across his face as he finally got what she was hinting at. "So what do you say?" she smiled raising the red pawn "Will you be a part of my peerage?" the offer was made.

He frowned slightly. "Isn't that a glorified slave system?" he asked bluntly.

Here she winced slightly. "Well there are some families who treat it as such.."

"But the Gremory clan is not one of them." finished her queen. "If anything, the Gremory clan is actually infamous for how they treat their peerages like family."

He looked at the piece in deep contemplation. "Before I answer that, just one more question." he swept his gaze around the room before settling back on Rias. "Why me?".

"That fallen angel was after you for a reason Issei," she explained "I believe that you posses a sacred gear and a powerful one at that."

Ah, so they had deduced he had a sacred gear.

"Sacred gears," she continued "are special tools made by the biblical god that are gifted to humans." she paused to let it sink in "if you could learn to use it, you would be a fine addition to my peerage." she finished. Throughout her speech Issei had been watching intently looking for a lie. He found none but there was something else in the emerald depths, lingering yet not seen.

He sighed. "Can I have some time, this is a lot to push onto me and I would like to sleep on it."

"Understandable." she nodded "We will contact you tomorrow but please consider the benefits."

Her queen chipped in "If you rise high enough in our ranks you can even make your own peerage you know." she trailed off with a giggle as she watched his mind slip into the gutter.

'My own peerage' he repeated mentally as he imagined his own peerage of voluptuous females catering to his every need. Unfortunately for him however, Koneko had caught sight of his expression.

"Stupid pervert." the new addition to his title jarred him out of his thoughts. Sighing in resignation he stood up and made for the door.

"Well of that is all, I'll be on my way now." he said.

"By all means." Rias said courteously.

When he was gone her queen finally spoke up. "One day Buchou? Isn't that rushing things a bit?" she questioned.

"We're running out of time Akeno." she said sadness colouring her tone "As we stand now we have almost no chance against Riser and his peerage, we need more power...otherwise I'll be forced to marry that trash." Her expression darkened at that last part as did her peerage's.

Kiba suddenly spoke up. "Buchou I just realised something." he said in suprise.

"What?" she asked from her brief down.

"He never actually told us what he was."

Eyes widening in surprise, she looked back at the previous conversation and found that he had indeed been able to avoid her question.

"Well played Issei. Well played."

* * *

"Well that could have gone worse." Issei mused as he walked out of the clubroom at an even gait before stopping suddenly. 'If I go back now there's going to be hell to pay, not to mention Matsuda and Motohama will probably murder me. Decisions decisions.' he mused weighing the pros and cons of skiving off. 'Meh might as well, I can avoid all the other hassle here while I'm at it.' and with that he all but skipped off to enjoy his temporary freedom.

* * *

The sun was beginning to set when Issei finally emerged from the game centre which he had spent most of the afternoon in. Who knew that he would be so good at the keyboard.

'Well that was fun.' he thought contentedly as he walked home with his hands in his pockets admiring the way the suns dying rays gilded everything with gold. Alas the peace was not to last.

"Well now, what have we here? I do believe that Raynare was supposed to have finished you off, oh well I guess I'll have to do it myself then won't I hmm?." he looked up and for the second time in his life came face to face with a fallen angel. This one was older and male unlike Raynare, he was dressed in a light violet trench coat and a matching Fedora complete with gloves.

"Die by the hand of Dohnaseek human!"

So caught up in his musing that he almost got hit by the blue light spear that suddenly occupied where his head was. He sigh, he had already lost control once over three words and as a result nearly let Spectre drive Raynare insane with its power.

 **Kill him.**

He heard the grating voice of the Dire in his ear. It was a valid solution he admitted, this way it would take out one of his would be assassins and buy him some time. 'But' he reminded himself 'that would go against my beliefs and draw more of the devil's attention to me.' The decision was taken out of his hands though when Dohnaseek's patience ran out and had lobbed a salvo of spears at him. Suddenly heat began to emit from his hands and just as the spears were about to touch he vanished.

* * *

"Take this you stupid human!" Dohnaseek cried as he launched the salvo of deadly blue light towards Issei. How a human had been able to avoid his first strikes was beyond him but he planned on rectifying that by his current assault. Or at least he would have had Issei been there when they hit.

"What?"

A fist suddenly appeared out of nowhere, blazing with an invisible heat it struck his cheek with the force of a bowling ball leaving a fist shaped burn. 'Shit!' was his mental screech as he fell to the ground, an ironic scene if ever there was one. Landing on his back, he was painfully aware that his wings had just taken a considerable knock and were probably broken. Forcing himself to sit up on his elbows, he looked around for the subject of his ire and to his shock found him standing exactly where he was just seconds ago. He was also for some reason palming his face.

* * *

Meanwhile, Issei had reappeared just as the spears pierced the wall behind him. He took one look at the sprawled fallen angel and promptly palmed his face at what he'd done. Sometimes having an army in his head which happened to care for his well being and had no qualms about acting on their own was annoying. He sigh, this was not his day. Noticing the very familiar degree of damage his hands once more lit up in golden flames as he knelt down and set about healing his adversaries injuries.

* * *

'Okay now I'm was confused.' thought Dohnaseek as the golden flames began to mend his wings and face. After all, what kind of person smashes someone tried to kill them into the ground and then heals him? Was it out of pity? No, as he looked into the eyes of his healer he saw a slight amount of guilt but no pity to be found.

When the last of his wounds were fixed he, like Raynare before him, stood cautiously never taking his eyes of Issei. Issei on the other hand had let the flames fade from his grasp and was regarding him as well.

"Apologies," he said surprising Dohnaseek "I don't generally make it a point to do lasting damage. Very bad for my reputation." and with that eloquent statement walked off.

"There are some devils coming now, you better run if you want to live." he called over to his shoulder and then promptly vanished in a flurry of blue particles mid stride. Dohnaseek decided to follow suite and quickly took to the skies on his newly repaired wings.

'Raynare was right; you are an interesting one, human.' he thought as he flew to the abandoned church that they were using as a base.

Ten seconds later a very confused Rias Gremory would appear with her queen only to find an empty street and some holes in a wall with no sign of her object of interest.

* * *

Next day

'Ugghh I did not get enough sleep last night' were the bedraggled thoughts of one Issei Hyoudou as he slumped onto his desk disinterestedly. It had been a while since he had had to borrow the powers of the other Dota and while an extremely low powered Sleight of Fist was nothing to him, two Phoenix flame usages over two days were enough to let him feel the drain on his body.

The wide berth that the rest of his class gave him due to his prior maniacal outburst didn't help his mood.

"Issei my friend, what has gotten you down on this fine day?"

Issei looked up to see the ever jubilant face of one of his partners in crime, Matsuda one of the few people who could just roll with his quirks.

"Yes, it is not fitting for a future harem king such as yourself to be in such a state." The 'three size scouter', Motohama himself made his presence known.

He smiled. Despite their quirks, Issei trusted them both implicitly. They had been his first friends when he started at Kuoh, the first since Irina... Irina, he wondered how his friend was getting on, he thought wistfully. The others must have noticed his wistful expression as their expressions turned slightly lecherous.

"Oho, I sense the traces of a woman on you Issei. Have you finally taken the first step to making your harem?" said Matsuda sounding like he had stumbled on a conspiracy.

"As a matter of fact, yes." He replied with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, something that they noticed. "You could say she was 'raven' headed." he continued humourlessly.

There was a commotion at the door suddenly as a majority of the class (mainly those of the female disposition) suddenly flocked to the door.

"Ano, are you Hyoudou Issei? Buchou wants to see you and has sent me to fetch you." the prince and lady killer; Kiba Yuuto was waiting at the doorway politely ignoring the clamouring females.

'Oh lord' he thought as the collective gazes of the class swivelled to look at him.

"Kiba and Issei NOO it cannot be."

"He will infect you with his perverseness"

"WHY!?"

was what the majority of the class screamed. The most vocal complaints however were from his two friends...

"ISSEI YOU BASTARD!"

"HOW COULD YOU GO TO THE DARK SIDE!"

'Aahhh yes the sound of suffering idiots'. He thought, personalitydoing a brief 180 as he all but waded through the masses to the door in grim satisfaction.

"Please follow me." his blonde guide said as they began to walk.

"Bloody handsome." was his muted reply.

* * *

They had a shower.

Why on earth was there a shower (Complete with curtains) in the middle of the room?

And why in the hell was Rias Gremory showering in it!?

"Alright." he said scratching his head as he looked at the silhouetted figure behind the curtain. "I get that having a showering facility here makes some sense but why is it in the middle of the room!?" The statement was punctuated with a outstretched finger.

"Fufufu, he brings up a good point Buchou." tittered Akeno as she stood attentively beside the bath a uniform in hand. "Perhaps Buchou enjoys the feeling of showing off her body?" she said suggestively smile never leaving her face.

"Akeno! .. what? .. No!" spluttered the showering devil as she abruptly turned off the water and snatched the clothes from her queen's hands changing in record time.

"Anyway." she said stepping from the tub having regained her composure. Have you thought about your answer?" she asked taking a seat behind the lone desk in the room.

"Well to be perfectly honest I don't wish to give up my humanity just yet." he said bluntly.

"I see then Issei-kun. Well I hope you'll keep all this to-" she began sadly though she did not show it.

"But I am willing to offer you my services in the capacity of a magician." he cut in abruptly causing her and the others to look up in surprise at his admission. Rias beckoned for him to continue "I'm not exactly a master of the arts but," he raised a hand and focused the power of Icarus into it producing a ball of yellow orange fire, "I know a few tricks of the trade." he finished allowing the ball to dissipate. To his surprise though, the other occupants of the room had grow oddly silent at the sight of the fire in his hands and seemed to forget he was there. "Um hello?" he said trying to get their attention. 'This is like dealing with the other for the first time.' he thought recalling how difficult it was initially to get the other beings within his soul to acknowledge him much less lend him they're powers. He sigh noting the rooms continued silence. So it was with no stain on his conscience that he pulled out a cap pistol that he always kept on him in case he needed a distraction (namely when he got caught peeping) and without further ceremony fired it at the ceiling with a terrific crack.

The results were varied. Kiba had started to leap to his feet with a pair of swords in his hands only to trip over his own feet and land sprawled across the coffee table, Rias had slipped her head off her hands and banged it into her desk, Akeno had simply jumped only slightly; being used to the sound owing to her magic and Koneko had actually leapt onto the back of the couch she was sitting on and perched there like a large cat, complete with raised hackles. "Now that I've gotten your attention," a grinning Issei said lowering the pistol causing the other members to quickly fix themselves up and look away sheepishly or glare at him, "Do we have an accord, Miss Gremory?" he asked seriously.

"Well I suppose it's a good way to show you how we work," she said rubbing her forehead "Would you be alright to fill in as a temp perhaps?"

He mulled the suggestion over. "Alright then." he smiled and held out his handwhich was then grasped by Rias "We have a deal." she said.

'Such soft skin,' he thought briefly as he beheld the texture of the crimson devil's flawless skin. Reluctantly he drew back and to their surprise he took a step back and bowed formally towards them at the waist and said, "I will be in your care now." before straightening back up.

"Welcome to the club Issei." Rias said warmly.

And at that moment Issei genuinely felt content since the turbulent times from so long ago.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Well here it is, chapter 2. I was quite conflicted about whether or not to make Issei a devil; on the one hand it is as Mad God 42 kindly pointed out overused but by the same arm of logic, people do realise this and have also done the 'Issei doesn't become a devil' song and dance quite often as well. Plus it limits the potential bonding development with the rest of the ORC. So I have decided to compromise, for this fic I will use one option, and my (hopefully) next DxD fic will feature the other option. Maybe.

Also, you will have noticed that the hero abilities are slightly different than the game. Well this is because I think that things were a bit constrained in the game; Phoenix fire for instance could be used as a general offence/defence ability without a skill. So to compensate I will be more following what the lore describes of the heroes instead of just the standard skills meaning more skills and buffs.

Another point is the ramifications of having the ancients in Issei. Yes Issei is basically playing Dota when he sleeps. However unlike the game he is an _actual_ soldier in the field and instead of standard health mechanics and absence of gore, it is a legitimate bloody battle field that holds its own horrors and casualties of war. Stuff like Clinkz's burning arrows actually burning and causing pain for example. Issei is slightly(?) PTSD in this fic for a reason. In regards to his strength and powers, that will be explained in a later chapter.

Aside from all that however, I have added the harem tag to the summary in case there was any confusion at all. Whether or not to include some Dota characters is iffy right now.

Thank you everyone who is supporting this story, you are awesome.

Chapter 2 – Meeting the Holy Maiden

"..."

"..."

Issei stared at the fliers. The fliers stared back mockingly with non-existent eyes. "Fliers." he said slowly "you want me to hand out fliers." he looked up to the amused face of his temporary king almost pleadingly.

"Well there aren't that many humans that are capable of drawing this level of magic circle anymore." she explained holding up a flier and gesturing to the complicated red circle on it 'Your wish will be granted' was written below it. "Therefore we moved onto handing out fliers, and it is your job as a part of this club to hand some out before we allow you to attempt a contract." she finished.

"Contract?" Issei asked.

"Contracts are what we devils use to harvest mortal folks greed, in exchange for a service we gain power from their greed." she said "They are also the primary way to rank up in devil society, the second being to compete in rating games which is essentially a peerage versus peerage battle. Any questions?"

"What does becoming a devil entail physically?" he was curious, aside from knowing about the wings he was mostly ignorant to devil anatomy.

"To start with you have increased parameters to superhuman levels. Devils are beings of darkness so you would also gain enhanced strength and vision at night as well as the ability to speak any language. However," she said seriously, "you also become very weak to anything that is related to god, crosses, holy water and light to name a few. Getting hurt by a holy weapon alone would cause huge damage to you and excess exposure kill you. Anything else?" The last part was stated almost cheerfully like she wasn't just listing the many ways his life could be ended.

Cue the sweatdrop.

"Alright then I have just one final question." he said in a serious voice. The others leaned in to hear.

He took a deep breath.

"Can I really have my own harem?" the question was asked in complete seriousness with a matching expression to boot. It also had the effect of causing a spontaneous facefault throughout the room barring the ever unshakeable Akeno who simply tittered in amusement in the background.

"Perverted idiot." was the deadpan response from Koneko, sending him into depression.

Akeno took pity on him "Fufufu if you rise high enough in rank you can have your own peerage which by proxy could become a harem if you so desired."

That cheered him right up, with a loud whoop of joy he snatched the pile of fliers and was out the door before they could blink, scaring Kiba who was in the hall along the way.

"...With that level of obsession, I'm surprised that none of the other factions have taken advantage already." Rias deadpanned as Kiba walked in looking very confused.

* * *

'I should really invest in a motorbike.' gasped Issei as he pedalled frantically around from house to house delivering fliers as he went. What had started off as lust driven vigour had swiftly given in to panting exhaustion as he continued to pump his burning legs. Holder of the Ancients he may be, but at the end of the day, he was still a human with human limits.

That and the 250 houses he'd been to probably didn't help.

Originally, he had been planning to simply use the power of one of the other Dota, however the temporary need for secrecy and his out of shape control said otherwise.

By the time he was on his last round, the sun had already set casting long fingers of darkness across the street.

Suddenly, his phone began to ring.

Flipping it open, he tiredly put it to his ear.

"Hello?" he said.

"Issei?" came the velvety voice of Akeno "Buchou just received orders from the archduke. We have a stray devil to exterminate and she would like you to attend."

"Stray devil?" he said quizzically.

"A devil that turns on its master and goes rouge." she explained.

His brow crinkled, it would seem that his earlier analogy of a glorified slave system was not far from the mark.

"Does that happen often?" he questioned back.

"It..depends on the piece in question as well as the way the peerage is treated. Abusive masters tend to have a much greater chance of strays occurring in their peerages. But there have been cases where pieces have strayed of their own accord."

Issei blinked, "Okay thanks for that. Shall I meet you guys back at the club room then?"

"That will be fine. See you soon~ Issei-kun." the last part was said in a teasing sultry tone that briefly caused him to forget his earlier line of questioning, not even registering that he was listening to a dial tone.

Snapping out of his short fantasy, he quickly mounted his bike and sped off to the academy.

* * *

"An abandoned warehouse." Issei deadpanned as the club teleporting circle faded away and the worn structure loomed above. "The amount of originality that went into this one was staggering." he continued to deadpan.

Before Rias could reply to this however, an oily, greasy voice interrupted her.

"I smell something."

Footsteps began to echo from the warehouse.

"Is it sweet or is it sour?"

Definitely getting closer now.

"No matter they all end up being eaten either way."

Finally, what appeared to be the top half of a black haired female came into view.

"...I take back everything, she has immaculate taste." Issei said perversely as he shamelessly ogled her curves.

A _naked_ female torso to be precise.

But then the rest of it's body came into view to reveal four trunk-like legs and an extra set of arms holding a pair of lances.

 _Crack_

T'was the sound of a breaking dream as Issei gazed upon the stray in all of it's bulking glory. 'It's like Enchantress-Chan gone wrong." he thought.

Rias stepped forth.

"Stray devil Viser, by order of the archduke we are here to eliminate you." she declared one hand outstretched in an authoritative manner.

"Well then little girl allow me to prove you _wrong_." it growled and lunged on the last word lances poised to pierce and skewer.

"Yuuto." she called.

"Yes Buchou." he replied and leapt into battle with a burst of inhuman speed.

"Issei, now is a good time for me to explain to you about the traits of evil pieces."

"Traits?" he replied quizzically.

"Each Piece has it's own unique traits that get bestowed upon their owners. Kiba is a [Knight] as you can probably guess," she gestured to where the blonde knight was blurring in and out of view, "he gains a vast speed boost from his piece. When coupled with his sacred gear [Sword Birth]," he suddenly noticed the two wicked European broad-swords that just sliced off the stray's extra arms causing it to scream in agony and rampage blindly, "he becomes quite the force to be reckoned with." she finished proudly.

As he digested this, he noticed that the rampaging devil was getting awfully close to Koneko with its pillar-like legs and the short girl didn't seem to notice.

"Koneko is a [Rook]." Rias's timely continuation just managed to stop him from doing something drastic and compromising his abilities. "The [Rook] piece is primarily known for the great defensive ability bestowed upon the user..." as though to punctuate her point, one of the strays flailing stumps choose that moment to come down on the pint-sized devil crushing the ground around her. But to Issei's surprise, giant foot appeared to strain as it was slowly pushed up to reveal the rook pushing back the attempted stomp.

"...fly." she said in her trademark completely neutral, deadpan before she picked up _threw_ poor Viser into the warehouse wall.

His following dual contemplation of a future policy to avoid angering the white haired rook and the amount of laws of physics that were broken just then (centre of gravity and leverage to name a few) caused him to almost miss his potentially future employer's description of the great strength also granted by the [Rook] piece.

"Finally is Akeno," Rias continued causing the tittering beauty to step forth.

"Ara, is it my turn to play now Buchou?" she said, giggling as she walked up to the groaning pile of flesh absent of its previous arrogance.

He watched, as she raised both hands to the sky an orb of yellow electrical energy gathered between them.

 _CRACK_

A luminous bolt of thunder struck the stray, charring it's skin and boiling its body fluids but not killing it.

"Ufufufu, still alive?" she simply continued to giggle before calling down another equally large bolt of thunder eliciting another scream from the stray.

"Akeno is the [Queen] of the peerage. The [Queen] has the combined traits of all the other pieces except for the pawn and king." Rias finally spoke up as she watched. "She is also the ultimate sadist." she continued almost as an after thought.

"Aahhh." moaned the sadist queen in what Issei now realised was open sexual arousal as she extracted scream after scream from the object of her sadistic focus.

"But don't worry, Akeno is very kind to her comr-." she was about to reassure him when she noticed that instead of fear or disturbance, he looked positively bored as he watched Akeno mercilessly electrocute her foe.

Noticing her questioning look he simply told her, "Pfft- I've seen worse and she doesn't even begin to hold a candle to the sadist I know of." his mind briefly went to a certain succubus of torment whom he'd had the...questionable pleasure of meeting during his dreams. The sudden velvety and seductive chuckle that came from the back of his mind did not help at all.

Eventually she stopped, and Rias took this as her que to step into the spotlight.

"Any last words?" she asked.

"Kill me." the stray all but whimpered.

"Then disappear."

Crimson black energy gathered in her palm, with a flick of her hand it grew and devoured the devil leaving no trace.

"Well now," she said turning to Issei, "after seeing all that I think it's fair you show us your sacred gear in return no?." causing the rest of the club to look at him expectantly.

'Clever girl' thought Issei as he realised that the whole point of bring him along was for them to show their skills to him so he would be obliged to do the same. 'But,' he mused smiling evilly inside 'two can play at that.'.

"My sacred gear you say." he started slowly as though he didn't know what she meant.

"The fallen wouldn't have come after you otherwise and you didn't deny it when I asked last time." she rebutted..

"Well.." he started nervously, "It's not that I don't want to show you but it's a bit... embarrassing, especially to females."

She simply raised an elegant eyebrow in response.

"It's called Dress Break. And it strips the clothes off people." he could not wait to see their reaction to this. Puck must've been rubbing off on him a bit, he couldn't remember ever having a particularly strong urge to troll people.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Silence as they all digested the information presented.

"WHAT!?"

He was right, the looks on their faces were worth it. Except Akeno, she just seemed to giggle a bit as she stared in open amusement at Issei.

* * *

It had taken a while for them to calm down before they parted ways, Rias in particular seemed adamant to prove that such a sacred gear could not exist and that the fallen wouldn't _couldn't_ possibly go as far as attempted murder to obtain it. It wasn't until he raised his hand at her and offered to demonstrate that she finally relented.

Akeno by contrast had teasingly said that if he wanted to he could practise on her allll he wanted.

Kiba simply smiled awkwardly and scratched his cheek.

Koneko by far had the most distasteful reaction, where before she looked at Issei like he was the scum of the earth now she saw him as something foul she scraped off the bottom of her shoe.

"Stupid shameless pervert." were her exact words.

Nevertheless, they had parted ways shortly afterwards each returning to their respective homes.

* * *

'I NEED A MOTORBIKE!' Issei screamed mentally as he was once more pedalling through the twilight lit streets to a contractor. After classes he had headed to the clubroom where to his surprise she had a contract for him.

 _Flashback_

" _Ah Issei just in time." Rias greeted him as he came in and sat down._

" _Yes Buchou?" he asked as Akeno poured him some tea._

" _A contract just came in for Koneko. But because she is away and seeing as it's a relatively simple one, I thought it would be a good first taste for you." she smiled gently. "As you know, there are two ways to rank up in devil society. The first and easiest way is to complete contracts to earn power, while the second is to compete in rating games."_

" _As for the ranks themselves, they are split into four groups. At the bottom are mainly newly reincarnated devils and commoners which make up Low-class, Mid-class is composed of Barons, Baronesses, Knights and Dames and High-class contains_ _Marquis, Marchioness, Margrave, Count, Countess, Viscount, Viscountess, Baron, and Baroness."_

" _Buchou is a High-class devil as well because she_ _is the heiress of the Gremory clan." Akeno chimed in helpfully causing Rias to nod in confirmation._

 _B_ _ut for one brief second,_ _so quick that he almost missed it,_ _her eyes seemed to darken and he was surprised to feel_ hate _come from her_ _at the mention of her name_ _._

" _And then there are the_ _Ultimate class." she continued_ _returning to normal ,"Ultimate's are the cream of the crop and stand at the top of devil food chain. Once a devil reaches Ultimate-class they are granted a title out of_ _Satan, Great King, King, Archduke, Archdu_ _c_ _hess, Duke, Duchess, Prince, and Princess."_ _she finished proudly._

" _So what rank would I be then Buchou?" Although he had already had a pretty good guess._

" _You would start off like all the others as a low-class devil." she confirmed. Damn._

" _Oh don't look so depressed," Rias noticed his sudden mood swing. "Yuuto is also a low-class devil too." she said trying to cheer him up._

 _Slump_

 _Only for him to fall further into depression as he realised that even as a low-class devil, the resident pretty boy still had him beat._

 _'Curse you Kiba, Curse you and your bishounen ways.' he thought heatedly._

" _Hey, um I'm sure you'd do fine though, before you know it you'll already be high-class like me and have your own peerage." she said frantically trying to break him out of his stoop._

 _Luckily it worked._

" _Really Buchou?" he said hopefully looking up from his hunched position._

" _Yes." she said relieved that it worked._

" _What are we waiting for then?" he exclaimed excitedly._

 _Flashback end_

So here he was now, in front of his first contract's apartment door.

Hand raised in anticipation, he rapped smartly on the door with his knuckles.

The door opened after the first rap and the face of a skinny middle aged man appeared. He had long black hair that ended just past his shoulders and bore a pair of matching black glasses.

He also had the energised yet haggard air about him that could only be achieved through copious amounts of sleep deprivation and many large consumptions of caffeine.

SLAM!

And that was all Issei was able to discern before the door smacked him painfully in the face.

"OW FUCK! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?" he shouted as he clutched his face in pain.

"GO AWAY YOU STUPID PERVERT!" came an annoyed voice from the other side.

"I'M THE DEVIL YOU ASKED FOR YOU STUPID GIT!" shouted back an equally annoyed Issei.

"BULLSHIT, I WISHED FOR KONEKO-CHAN AND BEESIDES THEY ALWAYS COME OUT OF THE FLIER NOT FROM OUTSIDE!"

"KONEKO IS BUSY SO I'M FILLING IN AS A TEMP DAMMIT. And it's not my fault I can't use the stupid fancy magic circle..." here he started to weep slightly, it wasn't his fault the awesome fancy magic circle was a peerage only feature. Dammit all why couldn't those things be universal.

The voice must have heard his muttering and taken pity on him, as the door began to open once more.

"Fine, come on in then." he spoke with a voice laced with pity.

Issei soon found himself seated in his client's modest apartment room. Said room was stacked floor to ceiling with almost every major anime franchise in existence.

"I take back all my previous insults, you are a magnificent git." he said as he gazed around in awe. So many different things.

"Hoho, so you understand the beauty of the holiness that is Anime unlike the masses." he responded approvingly.

Issei grinned and introduced himself hand extended.

"Issei."

His client grinned and returned the gesture.

"Morisawa."

As soon as their hands clasped an illusionary wave of water rose from the sea, cresting under a rising sun and spreading tiny sparkles of water around them. This was what was know to the world above and below as the 'Otaku Contact Phenomenon' where when two or more otaku of the same calibre meet, a surge of energy is released to form a complex optical illusion that even the most accomplished of youkai have not been able to break.

Introductions over, they quickly got down to business.

"So what is your wish then?"

"Well," he stood and reached between two precariously stacked piles of manga and pulled out...

"I wanted Koneko to wear this." he held up the carefully folded school uniform.

"Is that Nagato Yuki's school uniform from Suzumiya Haruhi." It was a popular anime from the year before and was especially endearing to his lolicon friend Motohama as the main characters were mainly petite girls.

"Oho, are you also a Nagato fan then Issei-san?"

"No I'm more of an Asakura Ryouko fan."

"Reason?"

"Her oppai." he said staring dreamily as he imagined Buchou's bountiful fields of glory. Truly, there were dreams packed within them. He could feel it in his soul.

"A big breast lover eh? I see that you are the exact opposite of my tastes."

"Opposite? Then you are a.."

"Yes, I like small breasted girls." he too began to look into the distance dreamily no doubt in a world of petite girls.

"Ah," Issei started snapping Morisawa out of his daydream, "maybe I could wear it?" he proposed hesitantly.

"Hahaha don't be ridiculous. If you try I will stab you with a sword." he said eyes glinting scarily in contrast to his easy grin as he pointed to strangely familiar looking sword mounted on a plaque behind him. It looked like the silver blade from a computer game that came out a while ago called The Witcher...

'Scary.' was his only thought.

"Oi do you have any special talents at least?" Morisawa asked.

"Hmm." while he did specialise in a great many things, almost all of them were combat related and didn't really fit under the parlour tricks category.

Then his eyes fell upon a pile of Dragon ball manga.

"I can do a kamehameha." he said drawing once more into the shining well of Icarus's power in preparation.

"Die." was his sole audience's serious remark.

He gained a tick mark at that. "What? I answered your question and you tell me to die!? Isn't that a little extreme here?."

"Where Dragon ball is concerned, there is no extreme that I will not hesitate to reach." his glasses glinted dangerously.

"Kamehameha!"

Orange Sunfire coalesced into a laser between his outstretched palms and blasted forth, scorching the apartment walls.

'May have overdone it a bit.' he thought nervously.

He turned to face his client.

"Sorry about the wall..." he stared to say

"Issei, my friend" he interrupted clasping his hand on Issei's shoulder tearfully, "that was beautiful." tears of happiness dripped from his eyes. "Please enlighten me on the greatness of the Kamehameha."

Issei clasped his own shoulder.

"I would love to." he said with equal emotion.

* * *

'Well it's nice to see a prospective peerage member doing so well.' Rias thought from her high perch above Issei's house. She had covertly watched over Issei during his contract in case a fallen decided to strike but it would seem that they had been driven off for now.

She giggled to herself as the red glow of a magic circle from beneath her lit up.

"Time to go and get to know my cute little potential-pawn better." she said to herself as she was teleported to the pawn in question's bedroom.

* * *

Meanwhile, Issei had just gotten back from his first contract and was pleased to know (according to his client) that he was awesome despite being a newbie.

Pleased as he was though, it did nothing to alleviate the tiredness that pervaded his body from the lengthy discussion on the finer points of the Kamehameha. Not even bothering to change out of his clothes, he was about to flop into his bed when the centre of his floor started glowing.

Snapping to full alert, his eyes widened as he realised it was a teleport circle and that he only had a few seconds before who or what came through.

 **Use me. Issei.**

Dark and oily. The creeping voice that whispered from the darkness, the bringer of nightmares whispered to him numbing his panic and clearing his mind.

Taking a deep breath, the title curled from his lips like dripping oil.

"Bane." he whispered and felt the elemental's vile black power flow through him like ice, chilling his body and mind.

He named him not by his true name but by the title granted to him. To name one of the Ancient's soldiers by their name was to invoke the core of their being into himself. It was to acknowledge their presence within himself and accept them into the core of his own being. While Issei was still the one pulling the levers, the concept of 'We' became 'I' and 'I' became 'We'.

Naming a Dota by their title however also achieved this, but not beyond the extent of allowing a wider use of their abilities than simply drawing in some of their power directly.

He raised his hand towards the circle and grunted in pain as the flesh around his arm tore itself open and began weeping the pitch blood that now flowed through his black veins stark against his skin.

Fingers splayed in preparation, he waited.

Suddenly the circle pulsed and before it's passenger could step out he already had a glowing purple hand loaded with unholy purple light thrusting forth.

Then, he glimpsed just who it was he was about to curse through the fading light and his eyes widened as he just managed to forcibly stop his hand from making contact from the terrified face of his current employer.

"Buchou?" he asked incredulously as he lowered his hand.

* * *

Whatever Rias had expected when she teleported into Issei's room, this wasn't it. Her hair stood on end and her strength left her as she gazed at the dripping hand that was inches from her face.

Fear poured from his hand like a caustic miasma, sapping her strength and resolve as it whispered into her heart.

"Buchou?" his sudden question managed to loosen the fear's hold on her for her to quickly take a step back.

"I-Issei what happened to you?" she gasped when she saw the black blood and veins that covered his arms.

Looking down at his arm he winced before closing his eyes and appearing to concentrate. Slowly the gaping holes in his arm closed and the black receded from his arteries leaving a normal but still bloodstained hand.

"It's...one of my abilities." he said at length gazing down at his arm before quickly firing back "What about you Buchou, why are you in my room." his voice gained a shade of curiosity even as he deliberately dodged the question.

"Why, Issei" she said regaining some of her teasing attitude. "I only wished to get to know a potential peerage member better through a bit of what I believe they call 'skinship' here."

"..."

He promptly went bright red as the implications of her statement coupled with the lateness of the hour finally clicked.

He must have looked adorable while he overheated as Rias suddenly glomped him with her sizable bust with low squeal of "Kawaii".

Fortunately for her, the Bane blood had long since disintegrated from his formerly wet hand so she was not immediately flung into the throes of a black nightmare. Unfortunately for Issei, he was either too tired or too embarrassed to enjoy what was probably one of his life's greatest ambitions and blissfully passed out much to Rias's amusement.

"Ooh Issei, sometimes I think you could give Koneko a run for her money." she giggled as she removed their clothes.

* * *

'Wha-what happened last night?' Issei wondered blearily as consciousness slowly returned to him as he pressed a hand against his head.

The other hand would have joined in as well if it weren't trapped by something else in his bed.

Turning around, Issei was treated to a sight that would be forever burned into his mind.

Rias Gremory, naked as the day she was born was wrapped intimately around his arm. An arm that she was hugging between her boobs and disappeared beyond the sheets that covered up to her waist line.

Involuntarily, he twitched his fingers.

"Nyah!" she moaned as his fingers scrapped against her inner thigh. "Mmm good morning Issei" she said succulently.

Shoomp!

She had barely just finished her sentence when the object of her interest all but teleported to the other side of the room.

"Wha-what happened last night?" he managed to stutter out. 'Dammit.' he thought mentally 'please tell me nothing happened, it's bad enough that I nearly curse her but to also forget my first time...'

She stretched, seemingly unconcerned of her lack of dress. The action did wonderful things to her bust though, something that Issei noticed.

"Um.. Buchou, not to be rude but could you please put some clothes on?" he requested meekly, for all his obsession he had no idea how to deal with the real thing as evidenced by last night.

She opened her mouth. No doubt to affirm her choice of nudism but was interrupted by loud footsteps thumping up the stairwell.

"ISSEI! WAKE UP OR YOU'LL BE LATE FOR SCHOOL!." a voice that he recognised as his mothers hollered.

He went white.

"...Oh Shit."

She could hear the capitals.

* * *

"Was that really necessary?" Issei asked the resident redhead walking beside him, now garbed in the Kuoh uniform. The human hurricane that was his mother had gone into shocked delirium when she lay eyes upon the naked foreigner devil on his bed. One pulse of crimson power later and a few pointed suggestions had the two dismissing it as nothing out of the ordinary much to his begrudging relief.

She raised an eyebrow, "Would you prefer the alternative?"

He sighed in resignation.

"No but please try to refrain from doing that in future." Mind manipulation always rubbed him the wrong way, the potential for abuse was just too great in his opinion.

"I'll try." she placated as they neared the academy gates.

Instantly every eye was riveted to the (in their eyes) blasphemous duo as they walked through the gates.

"The lecherous beast is walking with Onee-sama!?"

"How could this be!?"

"It's a sign of the apocalypse!"

Evidently the effects of his laughing fit the day before had worn off for his classmates had no qualms about making their displeasure known.

He sighed heavily, he really should have seen this coming.

"Well I'll be seeing you later then, Issei-kun." Rias said as they parted ways.

As soon as she turned the corner however...

"Issei you fucking bastard!"

He ate dirt as something hit him on the back of his head. Looking up he was met with the twin snarling visages of his fellow perverts.

"What is the meaning of this!? Walking in with one of the great Onee-samas. I thought we were friends in disgrace."

He blinked once.

He blinked twice.

He grinned.

"I saw real tits."

 _Critical Strike!_

And the two perverts were brought to their knees, as the supreme pervert stood above their defeated forms.

* * *

Meanwhile

"What do you know about black blood?"

Sona raised an eyebrow at her fellow devil as she moved her bishop to take a knight. When Rias had come to the student council room and asked her for a game of chess she knew there was more to it than a sudden whim.

"Well off the top of my head there are a lot of creatures that have black blood and maybe certain courts of vampires." she replied studying the board.

"Do any of them have anything to do with fear or have the ability to use fear?" she asked, shuddering slightly as she recalled the terror that seemed to ooze from her mysterious club member's hand that night.

The Sitri heiress's eyes narrowed slightly at that addition.

"Well I do remember a certain obscure goddess being mentioned in a book I read a while ago. Nyctasha I think it was." she said slowly, subtly prompting her opponent to explain why she was interested.

She hesitated as she reached for a pawn.

"It has something to do with the Issei."

"The pervert?" Her eyebrows rose up visibly at that admission, the game all but forgotten between them.

She listened carefully as Rias recounted her terrifying experience.

"...it was horrible like Onii-sama getting serious." She finished with a visible shiver.

"I will look into it." Sona finally said after she digested her almost unbelievable story. Were it not Rias she would have written it off as a mere fib.

After all, the self-proclaimed harem king somehow having dark eldritch powers? Must be some sort of misunderstanding.

Right?

* * *

The multi-verse is a vast space, filled equally with both horrifying abominations and beauty beyond words.

"Please make Mil-tan a magical girl -nyou."

There were some things however that didn't fit into either category.

"...Oh god why?"

The abject cry of dismay and horror echoed down the oddly empty street. He had been off to such a good start as well, Rias had given him his second client after reading a glowing review from Morisawa. Raised eyebrows all round given that he didn't actually complete the contract, which was excusable in his opinion given that if he tried he'd probably get bisected or worse.

So he had happily skipped down the road, mind filled with pictures of beautiful Gothic girls posing for him.

The thing standing before Issei promptly made him want to kneel and renounce the existence of god. It was a man but not just any man, muscles bulged like corded steel pylons along his vast arms and torso making him even larger than he seemed.

And worst of all he was in cosplay.

If it was as a character that actually matched his build then it might've actually impressed Issei instead of making him attempt to tear out his eyes. No, what he wore was the epitome of diabolism.

It was... a many sizes too small magical girl outfit which highlighted all the _wrong_ places.

Especially the skirt, oh dear god the skirt.

"..."

He snapped.

Issei Hyoudou, holder of the Ancients was officially mind-blown. Literally.

Mil-tan in the meantime had gotten tired of waiting, the white sparkles that were his eyes growing even larger.

"MAKE MIL-TAN A MAGICAL GIRL!" and yanked his planked body into the doorway and the dark beyond.

Had he had his mental faculties in order he would have wept.

* * *

"Issei..." Rias said slowly from behind her desk, a peculiar expression on her face which did nothing to soothe his nerves.

Directly after classes had ended and he walked into the clubroom she had motioned for him to take a seat. Picking up two pieces of paper, she had alternated between looking between them and him causing his concern to grow with each cycle.

So it was with good reason that he all but jumped out of his skin when she finally called his name.

"I just got the feedback for your failed contracts which should normally be pretty bad,"

She looked at him with a strange expression.

"but the feedback you got is spectacular, especially the latest one."

Ah. Mil-tan.

Unintentionally, his mind began to drift back to his second contractor.

 _Flashback_

 _Despite being mind-blown, he was perfectly capable of perceiving his surroundings. So he was vaguely surprised when he was placed in front of a large flat screen t.v._

" _Lets watch_ _Magical Girl Milky Spiral 7 Alternative_ _, that is where the true quest for magic begins." Mil-tan had said as he sat down beside him._

 _6 Hours later_

 _For a while he had been apprehensive, but as the show went on he slowly got more and more hooked._

 _Although it didn't help that Mil-tan started to mimic the main heroine's poses._

 _End Flashback_

"Yeah, hahaha." he laughed awkwardly as he rubbed his neck.

"Well keep up the good work I guess but do try to get the contract next time." she place the papers down. "Onto a more important topic, have you given anymore thought about joining my peerage?" she reached into the desk and pulled out a red pawn hopefully.

He sighed.

Once more the offer was presented.

Once more his response was the same.

"Thanks Buchou, but I'm not ready to give my humanity yet."

He looked around the empty room. "Well since everyone else has left I better be off then."

As he left though she couldn't help but notice

That once more, the sentence was accompanied by an oddly melancholic and maybe even sad smile.

In the future, not the near future but the future nonetheless she would find herself doing everything to preserve that smile.

* * *

"Haaaaaa"

Issei exhaled as he sat on a park bench. His employer was getting desperate if her increased attempts were anything to go by.

On a more positive note however, his power was slowly beginning to resynchronise with his body. The twin streams of wispy and jagged energy once more flowing through his veins. There were still other things that would take time to fix however and some things that he wasn't sure he could.

Leaning back he closed his eyes and contented himself with simply basking in the gentle sun.

'I wonder if this is what it's like to dream.' he thought. 'Not that I would know.'

"Hawaau!"

The cry snapped him out of his musings and he had just stood up and opened his eyes only to be suddenly assaulted by a white hat. Stumbling to his knees, he wrenched the hat which he found to actually be a head dress from his face...

...and bore witness to one of the most spectacular face plants he had seen to date.

"Hauu why does this keep happening to me?" a muffled voice came from the tangled clump of ...robes? Huh come to think of it she just spoke in Italian and it was only thanks to the ancients that he, like the devils, could speak every language though his went a bit further. That aside taking in the state of dress and language she must be a sister then. Taking pity he decided to help her up and extended his hand.

"A-are you alright down there?" he asked tentatively as she gratefully took his hand and pulled herself up.

"Thank you so much. Oh Lord why do I keep tripping over?"

Hmm? The voice was very young no more than his age at least. That was odd he didn't think that the church recruited so young but then again what did he know?

Finally he caught his first glimpse of the nun's face and felt his eyes widen.

'Beautiful.' Was the automatic thought that went through his mind as he took in her long blonde hair and green eyes.

'I think I'm in love.' he thought dreamily as he drunk in her cute visage.

Was this his lucky break? He was the self-proclaimed harem king. Finding a nun this stunning was something that he would never have expected to happen.

"Umm is something wrong?"

'No, there is absolutely nothing wrong right now.' he thought happily. Only for the question to actually register a second later and he realised he was staring.

"O-oh nothing, nothing at all." he said quickly and held up the veil to her "This is yours?"

"Thank you." she took the veil and placed it back on her head. Dammit that's cute.

"So~" Issei trailed as he struggled to find something to talk about and finally settled on the suitcase beside her. "You travelling somewhere then?"

"Ah actually I was transferred here recently and was looking for the local church but no-one speaks Italian. You must be a local though, do you know where it is?" she looked up hopefully.

Odd, the only church he knew of was currently abandoned and hadn't been used for years on end. Then again the church was weird like that sometimes, he would know having brushed against the holy order a few times due to... certain circumstances.

"Yes I think I can do that." he replied smiling slightly.

"R-really? May the Lord bless you for your kindness." she said hands clasped in front of her rosary and tears of gratitude in her eyes.

And so the unlikely duo set off.

Only to stop after a whole 10 seconds when the nun saw a child clutching his knee on the ground.

"Are you alright Yosh-kun?" the child's mother asked in concern as she hovered over her child.

Almost immediately the blonde nun rushed over and fired a stream of soothing Italian words that made no sense to the child but nonetheless calmed him. Raising her hand to his knee an orb of bright green light formed over the wound and started to erase the graze like a cloth wiping a stain.

Wide eyed the child stood up and smiled at her in childlike wonder.

"Thank you Onee-san" he managed to said before his mother dragged him away as she waved at him.

"Sorry about that, force of habit." she said sheepishly as she returned to her temporary guide.

"That power...A sacred gear I'm guessing?" granted there were a few healing magics around but the church was not one to allow a practitioner of the pagan arts into their ranks.

She smiled brightly "Yes it's a wonderful power that god gifted me with." her tone was bright but there was an undercurrent of bitterness there to. Probably a sensitive topic.

Sensing the proverbial landmine that he was treading around, Issei decided to let sleeping lions lie and continue in silence.

Soon the looming black spire of the church came into view and while it caused the sister to let out a exclamation of joy it only bought a small sense of melancholy to him.

Suddenly he saw a feather lying on the ground next to the doorway, a _black_ feather that made him weary of why the innocent was _truly_ sent to the abandoned church.

"Well I better be off then." he started to turn only to have his hand grabbed.

"Oh would you allow me to make you a cup of tea?" she asked "As thanks for leading me here."

"Sorry but I really need to be going." her face fell and he almost caved. Putting a smile on his face he quickly added "But that doesn't mean I won't see you again, the name's Issei. Issei Hyoudou, call me Ise if you want."

He held out his hand "Till we meet next time."

She smiled back "Asia Argento, please call me Asia." she took the hand and shook it.

Even as he walked away he could feel her eye follow him until he reached a bend. The innocence and purity that he sensed from her was almost extinct in the current world. Something like that was worth protecting in his eyes.

Unknown to Asia, the place where she touched his hand briefly flashed white as a odd symbol of two dots divided by a line appeared.

* * *

I know it's a bit shorter than the last one. Hopefully I will be able to put more time into writing as time goes on.

As always, read and review.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: Chapter 3 woot! Things are gonna start to cook with gas now. Thank you all so much for the feedback and support. And I got the virtual cookie and potato thanks :).

Had a bit of a difficult time deciding which hero to use in the Asia retrieval arc and while unfortunately it's not Sven, don't worry he'll be showing up later in the story. As for who (or what) I have chosen, well you'll have to read and see.

Oh and on the off chance anyone was confused, Issei can't use the contract teleport circle but generic teleport circles are okay.

Enjoy.

Chapter 3 – Of lesser faith

"Don't go near the church again."

Issei blinked at the serious visage of his employer.

"Okay, why?"

She began to explain "The church and devils have a long going feud as I'm sure you guessed by all the gospel they spread against the summoning and contacting of devils." She clasped her hands together and leant her chin on them. "With you being officially contracted to me you may as well be a devil to them. So stay away from that church."

He sighed, this would reduce the chances of meeting Asia to nearly zero.

'But' he thought with a slight smile, he had imparted a small fragment of his power in her. If something happened to her he would know and he took comfort in that as much as he could.

"Understood." was his reluctant agreement.

* * *

Blood.

He instantly picked up on the scraping metallic scent when he pulled up to his client's house on his bike. It was a smell that he had become intimately familiar with during his battle wrought slumber.

 _Flashback_

 _He screamed as blood flew from his arm, the bloody jade knife wielded by it's green enshrouded master came up once more aiming for his ribs._

 _Biting back the groan of pain that threatened to tear from his lips, he raised his long curved blade and parried the strike following up by cleaving its wretched head from its shoulders sending a fountain of blood into the foggy air._

 _But before he could capitalize on his chance, three more leafed warriors appeared before him, the icy blue sparks of light that were their eyes glaring at him. Snarling he forced down a flickering plume of faerie fire feeling his wounds knit back together as he drew into the Juggernaut's skill._

 _Eyes glowing with rage he drew the blade to his hip parallel to the ground._

" _Blade Fury" he intoned before bursting into a swirling maelstrom of blades, a massacring vortex of edged wrath._

 _Blood and gore flew into the air as once more as his blade sang its bloody melody._

 _Flashback end_

Shaking his head, he slowly approached the slightly opened doorway. Pushing it open he carefully examined his surroundings.

It was quite. Unnaturally so and the smell of blood intensified as he stole down the darkened hallway towards the only lit room he could see hands at the ready. Easing the door open slowly to minimize any possible noise he peered into the dim beyond.

All seemed normal. The room was a living room with some modest furniture and even a flat screen television.

But then his eyes swivelled to the source of the smell and stopped.

More blood.

A male that he assumed _was_ his client was nailed upside down, his eviscerated torso spilling his organs past his chin leaking acid. Clumsy bloody letters were written on the wall above him.

"Punishment for those who did bad deeds." A sneering voice introduced itself to the cramped space. A young teen dressed in the white garb of a priest walked in lazily, a strange silver tube swinging whimsically by a clip around his finger. He reminded Issei of a white haired version of Kiba sans the ugly leer that decorated his face.

"You see~ this piece of shitty trash was reported to be summoning devils. And with me being the _good_ priest that I am I did the world a favour by cutting him apart~" he sang dementedly twirling with a twisted smile on his face.

Foosh!

The cylinder that he had been twirling absently lit up like into a lightsaber-esque sword of light and he pulled a silver gun from his waist unleashing a barrage of light bullets that most humans would be hard pressed to dodge.

But for Issei they may as well have been going through treacle. Lighting his hands with flame, he propelled himself gracefully through the barrage right into the priest's startled face.

Grabbing his wrists before he could react he let the fire in his still burning hands sear him causing the acrid smell of burning flesh and a scream of pain to fill the air.

"I-Issei-san?"

'No. Dammit at a time like this.'

"NOOOOOO!" the person screamed as they glanced upon the reverse crucified human.

Looking up, his fears were confirmed as the trembling sight of Asia came into view.

"Why Father Freed!? Why?" she wailed in horror as she fell to her knees.

 _'Dammit how could I be so careless, I have a god-damn marker_ _on her for gods sake.'_ he cursed. And in that moment of distraction the priest seized his chance through the pain and head-butted Issei in the face causing him to let go in surprise.

Wrenching his charred wrists from his grip, he leapt towards the blonde nun and grabbed her hair forcing her to look at the mutilated corpse that was nailed to the wall.

"See!" he screeched "This, my cute little assistant is what we do to shitty devil summoners. Now hurry up and heal me so I can kill this shitty devil lover for burning me." Upon seeing the nun's unresponsiveness he brutally knocked her out with the butt of the gun.

Issei's blood boiled as he saw this and hurled an angry ball of scorching flames that weren't quite Phoenix's fire.

The gentle golden flames of both healing and harming gave way to the hatred fuelled flames of the Bone Fletcher's curse.

Narrowly dodging the flaming ball of fury, Freed was about to return fire only for the sudden glow of a familiar magic circle to make him think otherwise.

"Ah, looks like the rest of the shitty devils are coming." he turned to glare at Issei only to stop.

His face had changed.

A vengeful spark of hell-fire gleamed in place of his normally brown left eye and the skin around it had shrunk bringing the imprint of his skull to surface. It bored into him. Judging him.

Slowly, unconsciously, an ashen bow was forming in his hand, the name of it's wielder on his lips as he prepared to strafe the priest into a burning mess.

Yet it was not to be, fortunately for Freed his foe was once more distracted by the arrival of the Gremory peerage in its entirety.

Thinking quickly, the teen priest whipped out a flash pellet...

FLASH

...and escaped with Asia during the brief moment of blindness it caused.

"..."

He clenched his fists and fire that wreathed them flared in response, the Bone Fletcher's own unending rage bolstering his own as his eye smouldered.

 **[Partner you need to calm down now!]**

Ddraig's voice desperately tried to break through the red haze that clouded his wielders mind to no avail.

"Issei." Rias's voice called out softly. When she felt a disturbance in the area where Issei had headed not long before for his contract she had quickly assembled her peerage and teleported to his aid. Or at least that was how it should have gone.

* * *

As soon as they had fully materialized she had quickly assessed the situation. It wasn't what she expected.

Issei, the perverted and slightly enigmatic self-proclaimed magician she had formed a contract with towered over the priest, hands filled with fire. A shape was forming too, what it was she did not know but she gestured for Koneko and Kiba to backup the magician. They did so, reluctantly. Koneko in particular was warily eyeing Issei's still burning hands with fear in her eyes.

Only for the priest to escape via a flash grenade before they could properly react.

"..."

For a few tense seconds all that was heard was the crackling of Issei's flame lit hands.

"Buchou, three fallen are approaching this location quickly. We should leave soon if we want to avoid them." Akeno reported, breaking the tense silence.

She sighed and turned to her queen "Prepare the circle again, if we stick around here it's going to cause more damage than we can afford right now." turning again to Issei as the others stood in the crimson circle she gently called his name.

"Issei."

Slowly he turned around and for the second time in the space of a few days she felt her breath hitch as she beheld the half skeletal appearance of his face, ember still burning in his socket.

Suddenly he blinked and the spark was replaced by his familiar doe-brown eye as the tension seemed to drain out of him.

The flames that had been hungrily writhing around his hands went out abruptly, as though the oxygen around them had simply ceased to be. His shoulders were slumped in sudden weariness like an invisible weight had been placed on each one.

"Hey guys." He said, weakly attempting to smile. None of them bought it.

* * *

The trip back to the club room had been in silence and upon arrival he had quickly asked if it was alright for him to head home.

Rias, either in concern or uncertainty at the sight she and the rest had witnessed was kind enough to dismiss him early.

It was lucky that today was Saturday, he didn't think he could face the usual shenanigans of Kuoh academy. Not with yesterdays events still fresh and looming above him.

His mind went back to his last meeting with Asia, her head bowed limply when Freed hit her with his gun. Rage had defined him in that moment, warping the golden flames of salvation he had wielded into the darkened flames of wrath and hellfire. He had been so close afterwards to storming the church and taking the nun from their grasp for good.

But that was not who he was.

Clinkz and a number of the other Dota would have no qualms about doing so however and were it not for Ddraig's presence he might have...become something he and Ddraig had done their best to prevent.

 **[Feeling better partner?]** there was no judgement hanging in the dragon's question.

He smiled.

'Yeah and no thanks to you Ddraig.' he thought gratefully.

 **[It wasn't just me you know, your employer managed to distract you enough for me to cut the flames off.]**

'Well I had better thank her too then hadn't I.' his mood suddenly dimmed 'If she isn't afraid of me at any rate.' One did not simply encounter something like a partial summoning of Clinkz and come out with their wits unshaken.

"Issei-san?" a familiar voice full of shocked surprise called out suddenly.

His slightly depressing train of thought was violently derailed.

He turned, scarcely believing that this was happening to him.

"Asia?"

RUMBLE

"..."

"..."

He scratched his cheek in slight embarrassment as they both refused to make eye contact.

"...Sooo lunch?" he asked hopefully.

She smiled brightly in response.

"I would like that."

* * *

There are many strange and unexplainable moments in life.

"Auuuu"

A Italian nun getting confused in front of a Japanese fast food menu was one of them.

"...she'll have what I'm having." her bemused escort broke in much to the cashier's relief. Perhaps letting her order had been an oversight on his part, no matter how enthusiastic she may have been to try.

"Haa, I can't even order a simple hamburger by myself." she looked down as she carried her order alongside Issei.

"It's not your fault." he quickly assured her "you just need to get your head around Japanese first." he said causing her to perk up a bit.

He sat down opposite her and unwrapped his burger. He was about to take a bite when he noticed her lost look at the sight of the wrapped meal.

"Here like this" he held the burger with his hands and took a bite to demonstrate.

Her eyes lit up in childish wonder as she watched him devour the stacked bun.

"Wow... We never ate like this back in Italy."

"You try." he prompted her and she eagerly unwrapped her own burger and took a large bite out of it.

"So good~" she chewed slowly to savour the taste.

"Is this your first time having a burger?" he asked between bites.

"Yes, we usually only eat bread, soup and pasta dishes in the church." she replied before returning to her oily meal.

Issei smiled contentedly across from her. Remembering the blow she had suffered from the priest he hesitantly called out to her.

"Asia, are you... alright?"

Silence save for the sound of continued chewing answered him that she was more than likely _not_ alright.

He decided to let it drop for now. No matter how much he wanted to speak out he did not wish to waste what little time he had with her.

Finishing up their food, the pair were wandering the streets in a semi-awkward silence that neither wanted to broach so they settled for simply enjoying each others company.

"Issei-san what is that building?" she suddenly asked pointing to a familiar place that he himself often frequented.

"It's a game centre, a place people go to have fun."

His blonde companion stared at the place in interest and perhaps a trace of longing as well.

"Would you like to go in?" he asked.

"Umm-"

The sudden tiny gleam of hope in her eyes was all the invitation he needed.

"Come on then." he took her hand and started for the centre eliciting a squeak of surprise from the nun at the unexpected but welcome turn of events.

* * *

The centre was crowded, but this was to be expected of the weekend crowd. As the recently reunited duo wandered in Asia let out a gasp, eyes wide trying to take in as much of the new world around her in as possible. Issei found her expression to be frankly one of the most adorable things he'd seen, and he had gone up against the Enchantress herself in all her untouchable glory.

He shuddered slightly. As innocent as she looked, the Ancients had picked her for a reason and dammit that girl knew how to exploit her appearance.

"Is that Rache-kun?" Asia's excited exclamation cut into his musings of literal death by cuteness.

The nun had her face pressed against the glass of a claw game and was staring at the mouse-like plushes with sparkles in her eyes.

"Do you want one?" Issei asked her, causing her to look away shyly with her fingertips pressed together.

He grinned "Leave it to me.

After much fishing and spending a good chunk of his budget, he was finally rewarded with an electric yellow Rache plush which he gave to Asia electing a squeal of delight from the blonde nun.

* * *

The sun was low in the sky by the time they re-emerged from the game centre chatting animatedly about the afternoon. They had tried a plethora of games from racing to fighting which she was surprisingly good at for a nun. He'd even gotten the privilege of seeing her in cosplay when a group of cosplayers mistook her outfit for a costume and dragged her to try something else on. The pictures of them both from the photo booth would be something he and her would continue to treasure.

"Ouch!"

He had been so absorbed in the conversation that he had failed to notice the large rubbish bin in front of him and bruised his arm on it. He winced, it was the arm which had recently torn itself open when he drew into the Bane's power and while it was healed for the most part it, the skin had yet to fully reinforce itself to normal capacity. A price of using a power beyond his body's current capability.

"Here let me see." his arm was taken between her hands and a familiar ball of green light shined erasing the blackening welt.

"There, good as new." she said cheerfully

"Thanks." he smiled flexing the arm "That's a handy sacred gear you got there Asia, must be a real blessing for the church."

Her smile turned bitter and he knew the landmine he had been so carefully trying to avoid had finally blown. "You know about sacred gears don't you Issei-san?" it was more of a statement than a question. "Let me tell you a story, the story of the Holy Maiden."

She began to speak, began to recount the bitter cross she had no choice but to bear. She spoke of a young girl, who was discovered by the church when she healed a small puppy on the road. She was taken in by the church, her power to heal was revered by many and placed her on a pedestal of prestige. Many came from far and wide to be blessed with her healing touch and to worship the holy maiden.

Issei didn't like where this was heading but continued to listen.

She continued to describe the contradictory nature of solitude that surrounded her. How despite the constant praise showered upon her she could never gain a true friend from the masses. It was an isolation from companionship.

Then one day, the young girl saw a man bleeding on the side of the road begging for help. She did not know who he was but he was hurt so she helped him only to find that he was a devil that had killed the exorcist chasing him. Eventually, the church found out and when they did the ones that took her in became the ones that threw her out. 'Blasphemy!' they had roared 'The power of God is not meant to heal devils!'. She who was once heralded as a Saint was cast out by the same people as a Witch.

Not one person, not one lowly priest or nun was willing to help her even the ones that she had healed did nothing.

Eventually a group of stray exorcists found her, praying to a silent god. They took her in and granted her sanctuary with the fallen.

No matter how hard she prayed

No matter how much she believed

God did not help her

God had abandoned her

And yet she continued to pray

In the hope that God would save her.

"In the end all she wanted was for someone to stay with her, to talk to her as an equal, to look at books with her, to talk with her." she looked down longingly, "Someone to be her friend."

He couldn't take it anymore.

"Asia." he started laying a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You got one part wrong," she looked at him in confusion through her wet eyes.

He smiled.

"we're already friends aren't we?" he said simply.

Her eyes widened at the statement before she smiled back radiantly. For her the simple declaration of friendship would be one of her most cherished memories for the rest of her days.

"Asia what are you doing here? You are still needed with at the church."

A familiar fluttering of feathered wings descended from behind them and he could see the dread that suddenly marred Asia's face.

"Raynare-sama." she uttered, the words descending like an executioners blade in the silent street.

Issei automatically spun around hiding as much of the nun behind his frame as possible, his eyes hardening at the all too familiar fallen angel.

 **[Partner!]**

BOOM!

Before he could even open his mouth to speak something blasted into his side, sending him careening into a wall.

"Shit." he cursed through blurred sight as he fought to keep both his mind and body under control. 'Fractured skull, spine damage, ribs broken and probably both arms as well. This is not my day.' he briefly lamented. Suddenly, before he could attempt to somehow heal himself without using his arms, a familiar green light made itself know as the nun's sacred gear did its work. When the last of the pain had faded she reluctantly stood back with a sad smile as Raynare and another shorter fallen responsible for his current state flanked her sides.

Before they teleported away she spoke two words, two words that held the finality of a dying wish.

"Goodbye Issei."

And they were gone, leaving the street silent once more.

Slowly, he pulled himself out of the wall uncaring of the lingering stabs of pain in his body. He clasped his hands to his head suddenly and gritted his teeth as roars of vengeance and rage boomed against his mind.

' _STOP!'_ he thundered mentally at the voices. Immediately the unintended grating against his mind ceased, as the voices realised what was happening. Sighing in relief and slight bemusement, he took his hands from his head and let a wave of reassurance wash over his soul and smiled when an answering wave washed over him.

"I believe a visit to Buchou is in order." he said to himself as plans started to circulate in his mind. If he was going to risk starting a war he would at least have the courtesy of letting his employer know before hand.

It was bad manners to not formerly make your employer aware that your actions may start a war, horrible for the reputation as well as experience had taught him.

Turning sharply on his heels he took off running for the old school building.

* * *

"Buchou, I'm going to go sa-"

The sentence died in his throat as he took in the scene before him. His almost naked employer was being groped rather enthusiastically by her queen causing the wonderfully full orbs to undulate in her hands.

Kpssshhh!

A fountain of blood ejected from both his nostrils at terminal velocity and propelled him right into the wall with a terrific crack. He giggled deliriously as his body slid down the wall and for the second time that week passed out from boob overload.

The sound had been loud enough to alerted the other two occupants of the room of his presence. Akeno had paused her ministrations and upon seeing the sight of Issei's collapsed frame, quickly deduced what had happened and started to chuckle at his apparent misfortune.

Rias on the other hand had seized her chance of escape and wrenched herself free, dressing in record time so as to discourage another attempt.

"What are you laughing at Akeno?" she asked as she straightened her blouse, a healthy red blush still on her cheeks. Turning around, eyes crinkled in amusement the sadist queen merely gestured out the still open door.

One glance told her all she needed to know.

Akeno, ever the opportunist saw the blush on her king's face deepen ever so slightly and was quick to seize the opportunity to tease.

"I think he liked what he saw Buchou. Don't you?" she whispered lewdly from behind her.

As though to reinforce her statement, a delirious chuckle followed by what sounded vaguely like "boobs." came from the unconscious magician before he fell silent once more.

"AKENOOOO!"

Her scream of embarrassment echoed through the old school building chased by the joyous laugh of her long time friend.

* * *

'What happened this time?' Issei sluggishly thought as he opened his eyes only to close them again as the light of the setting sun blasted him in the eyes. Grimacing, he slowly sat up and looked around. He was in the club room judging by the look of the familiar Victorian furniture. Swinging his legs off the couch he tried to remember why he had come fall unconscious in the first place only for a familiar voice to cut into his thoughts.

"Issei! You finally woke up." Rias exclaimed as she looked up from the papers she had been reading at her desk.

"Buchou?" something hazy tugged at the back of his mind, "What happ- ASIA!" he bolted to his feet.

"The continent?" Rias questioned confusedly wondering if maybe the blood loss was worse than they first thought.

"The nun!" he said distractedly as he worriedly noticed the setting sun through the window. "I'm going to save her." How long had he been out for?

Rias frowned. "Issei, nuns are a part of the church. If you try to take her it could be seen as an act of aggression from the devils-"

"Oh no." Issei wasn't listening but looking down at his hand in horror as a mark identical to the one that he had placed on the nun flickered red.

"I have to go." a vortex of blue light swirled into existence around him, glowing scripture flickering into life beneath his feet as the familiar glow of an imminent teleport made itself known.

"Issei wait!"

"Sorry, Buchou." he smiled, a melancholic effigy and vanished with a swirl of blue light leaving Rias alone in the room.

* * *

The abandoned church stood before him. Once a place of holiness, it now stood tainted both by the absence of its patron and the fallen within.

"Heeey~ you're the shitty devil from before." he leapt back as a familiar lightsaber sliced down in front of him.

"Get out of my way Freed." he warned lowly. He was not in the mood to waste any more time than he already had and the mark on his hand was starting to fade alarmingly fast.

"Don't wanna~" the insane priest was quick drop his sword and to draw out a pair of pistols to start shooting no doubt learning from his last experience of fighting close quarters.

"Che, screw this." Beneath his sleeve a single curling line of blue appeared around his arm glowing with the Radiant's light. " **Omniknight** **!** " he barked and started to deflect the bullets as the fabled war-hammer of the Omniknight blurred around him. The hammer, capped with gold and stamped proudly with the Omniscience's crest whirled through the air with practised ease as bullets were deflected left right and centre.

Suddenly he was forced to dodge to the side as a sneaky spear of light tried to pierce him from behind. Looking back he saw not one but three fallen angels floating with spears raised in preparation to launch another salvo. He recognized the familiar sight of Dohnaseek but the other two were new to him.

Especially the one on the left, he would've remembered a bust as big and wonderful as that.

"Not so cocky now are you shitty devil." Freed mocked as he took the chance to reload.

Suddenly the mark that represented Asia's life force flickered, nearly going out before weakly springing back. Any thoughts of busty fallen or holding back had left his mind as he started to allow the Omniknight's no-, Purist Thunderwrath's power to flow into his soul.

"Enough." he stated planting the hammer head first into the ground. Suddenly, to his enemies the air around him _changed_ , as though someone else was now standing before them. Someone who was radiating pure holy power.

 **I who have looked into the Omniscience.**

Twin ribbons of light helixed down from the sky and curled around his form before sending out a ring of pure holy energy with him at the centre.

 **The Chosen bearer of his Blessing. The Bringer of his Light.**

"Shit he's from the church." the short one swore as they swerved upwards to escape the blast. Freed however was without wings and was blasted through the tree line where he lay groaning, burns littering his body.

 **Where Piety fails, my Hammer shall Fall.**

Before the light had faded he was in the air, hammer pulled to his now armoured side in gauntleted hands as he bought it in a wide sweeping arc towards the startled fallen. He caught them all in his sweep and sent them crashing to the ground as a tangled heap.

 **Tremble before Me, for My Cause is Just, My purpose Righteous.**

They recovered quickly as expected of the former soldiers of heaven. Light blossomed in their palms and lengthened into different coloured spears of light. Spears which hurtled towards his still turned back but failed to penetrate the gilded ivory plates that now spanned his body. Slowly he turned and it was not Issei's visage that greeted them but the bearded face of Omniknight, his glaring blue eyes piercing them where they stood.

 **I am Purist Thunderwrath, the Righteous Hammer at His command.**

He gestured with his hammer and glowing white crests materialized above them before shooting down like vengeful stars and pinning them to the ground by both their limbs and their wings.

 **And through the Omniscience's Light, Thou Shalt Be Cleansed.**

But the final blow did not come. Instead, the knight turned to the silent church his red stole fluttering as he marched into the darkness. His deep voice boomed to the fallen one final time before the blackness claimed him.

 **Rejoice, betrayers of the Light for 'He' has declared that Thine Judgement be delayed.**

The Omniknight would have killed them instead of leaving them bound. Would have willingly crushed their skulls beneath his hammer instead of simply binding them to the earth.

But the Omniknight was also Issei, and Issei had made it clear that they were _not_ to be killed.

Except for Freed though, but luckily for him he had woken up during the fight and scampered.

Break

The first warning they had was the sound of armoured boots marching methodically across the stone floor. The passage that lead to the hidden entrance in the altar above echoed with the heavy thuds of a hammer's hilt on the ground.

The rouge exorcists looked eagerly at the door, guns and swords held ready as the footsteps drew near.

Creeeak

The door edged open and a plated foot stepped forth.

"Now!"

"Eat this!"

"Die!"

A disjointed cacophony of war cries and gun reports filled the dank basement air as a wave of luminescent bullets surged forth towards the door.

 **Against the Omniscience's Blessing, no Sorceries shall avail.**

The bullets converged, impacted and reflected back as they struck the shimmering blue barrier covering his plated form, arcs of blue light lazily orbiting around him. He marched forth, unhindered by the meagre attack and swept his gaze across the room and stopped.

There, at the centre of the dais was Asia.

Wearing only a barely opaque nightgown, she was strung up limply on a crucifix shaped machine while Raynare stood before her in her not-quite-bondage outfit.

But she seemed more...forlorn instead of triumphant, there was no joy to be found as she turned to regard the Omniknight's form. She seemed to mourn at the absence of the other three fearing the worst, but her eyes steeled and she turned once more to face the cross. "Hold him off." she ordered to the exorcists around her and began chanting.

He turned his gaze down to the charging horde, obviously hoping to overwhelm him with their sheer numbers. Their blades descended, aimed to pierce and skewer him from all sides and it would have worked had they wielded blades of metal instead of the blades of light that, while not born of the pagan arts were still magic in nature.

 **Repel.**

And like all their bullets, they were reflected and blocked by the holy shield that shrouded him.

The Omniknight was not idle during this though, his sanctified hammer whirled through the air crushing bone and cartilage alike where it impacted. The others seeing that their attacks had no effect tried to run, to put some distance between them but as he drew near at a speed that belied his size they found the strength sapped from their limbs and muted whispers filled their minds.

 **Your Guilt weighs Heavily. You who are of Lesser Faith.**

He proclaimed as he raised his hammer again and again sending groaning heaps of flesh crashing into the walls, beaten but alive.

"IYAAAAAAAAAAA!"

As the last of the exorcists fell to his hammer a scream cut through the air as the nun writhed on the cross, a ball of familiar green light leaving her chest and floating into Raynare's outstretched hands.

" **N** o **!** " one of his eyes turned brown, his focus fading as he sprinted for the altar, shedding pieces of white armour as he went leaving them to fade into white particles.

"Oh by the Radiant please no." he leapt past where Raynare was panting and crushed the manacles binding her and lay her gently on the ground. Pulling what was left of the Omniknight's power into his hand he cast a concentrated Purification and pumped it directly into Asia's weakening body. The magic healed her body but her soul was already fading, too weak to anchor itself to her body after the strain of the extraction.

"Issei-san." she said smiling weakly despite the pain. "I had fun today, thank you." she breathing stilled and he watched helplessly as the light faded from her once bright green eyes.

The mark on his hand flickered once. Before it too faded into black.

His own eyes hardened and he turned to Raynare causing her to stumble to the ground at his gaze, the bloody gauntlet of the red dragon appearing on his hand in response to his silent fury.

He let his rage induced silence speak for him and raised the gauntlet high before driving it down causing the air to scream at the speed it travelled.

"I'm sorry, Issei." the fallen did not struggle or attempt to defend herself, seemingly content with her fate as her death orbited towards her like a red meteor.

And yet despite the noise, despite his rage her words reached him and triggered something in him.

He stopped, mere millimetres from her nose as he stared at her, rage forgotten.

 _Flashback_

 _The fallen screamed as Juggernaut's blade cut into his side. Cold eyes looked on from behind a chalk white mask marked with red as another nameless body fell to the ground. It was the last one amongst many that had attempted to ambush him. And like the others, he too fell to his blade._

 _Flicking the blood off with a quick turn of his wrist, he turned and limped of into the night leaving the pile of carnage behind him._

 _Flashback end_

She is only one drop in an ocean of many, his pragmatic mind reasoned but the weary side of his mind, the part that was tired of all the bloodshed told him to let it go.

He looked at Asia's fallen body. Had she been alive it would have looked as though she simply fell asleep. Something was missing though, the familiar rings that represented her sacred gear were absent from her fingers.

"Give them back." he spoke up suddenly startling Raynare at he sudden breach of silence. He crouched down with her "It hasn't had time to bond with your soul yet so," he held out his hand "please."

Normally she would have refused, would have leapt at the chance to strike while his guard was down, to smite the life from him like an insect.

But like the last time his eyes stopped her. They looked tired but despite that tiredness, pure power lurked behind them caged behind his will. It gave his eyes quite an alluring effect she realized even as she reluctantly returned the rings for him to put on the nun.

When both rings were once again present on their proper owner he turned to her and she tensed despite his earlier mercy.

"Go," he said, "the restraints binding your companions will've faded by now." he noticed her surprised expression "What, did you think they were dead?" he made an attempt at chuckling only for it to come out as more of a hollow grunt. "Go, before the others get here."

She looked uncertain, not that he could blame her given the previous events.

"Why?" she asked at length never taking her eyes off him in case he decided to change his mind.

He looked longingly at Asia, "It's what she would've wanted."

She still seemed unsure, as though the penny had yet to drop but nevertheless she quickly took to the skies and disappeared in a flutter of wings.

Issei sighed as he slid his back down the side of the cross.

"Heh," he muttered to himself "to think that a being like her of all people would be capable of showing remorse." Monsters were remorseless, people like Freed who felt no regret for their actions were monsters in all but species to him.

A monster would not have tried to repent in the last seconds of their life.

"Aahhh." he sighed tiredly "How in the Dire am I going to face Buchou and the others." he tilted his head back against the infernal machine which had cost Asia her life and gave a humourless laugh "Oh well, it's not like I'm gonna be welcomed back after this stunt." he talked aimlessly into the silence.

He was not prepared for the silence to talk back.

"Really, to think you had such a low opinion of us. I'm offended Issei."

His head snapped up in shock as the familiar teasing tone of Rias's sadistic queen reached his ears, tinted with slight awe at the crumpled bodies around them. Looking around to the entrance, his fears were confirmed when the entirety of the Occult Research club made its way towards him.

His throat went dry.

How in the hell was gonna explain this one?

* * *

As soon as the light from Issei's abrupt departure had faded, Rias had wasted no time and immediately gathered her peerage and after explaining the circumstances gathered them into a teleport circle to the church.

"Be prepared for anything." was her only advice to them when Kiba had asked what to expect when they got there. Koneko however had a more serious concern to voice.

"What should we do if we meet Issei-senpai?" she asked in her usual stoic manner. Her king contemplated the question for a minute, recalling the expression he made when he left. It was almost sad the way he smiled, as though he knew full well what his actions could cause and was prepared to never see them again. It was a good question though, he had gone directly against her orders and rushed away to save the nun. A nun that may have been official fallen business in which case she had no choice but to renounce their contract. 'But then again, that exorcist Freed Zelzan was wanted in almost every supernatural circle including the fallen's, so maybe they weren't acting officially?' thoughts continued to bounce around her head as the silence drew on.

"I see." she was broken out of her thoughts by the rather solemn two words Koneko had said

and it took her a few moments to compute what them.

"Wait, no that's not what I meant!" she hastily waved her hands to halt the extreme line of thought that her silence had lead the rook to believe. "just-." she sighed "We'll deal with that when we come to it." she settled on at last. She turned to her patiently waiting queen, "Akeno."

"Yes Buchou." she replied evenly, still slightly nervous at the prospect of teleporting into what was essentially enemy territory for the first time and activated the circle sending them away in a flash of light.

* * *

They arrived and immediately sprang into battle stances before the light had even faded. The ground was saturated with holy power, enough to cause their inbuilt devils instincts to automatically scream at them. Around them the ground was scorched black, as though a flammable gas cloud had spontaneously ignited in the exact shape of a circle. And at the edge were three struggling fallen angels, bound to the ground by what appeared to be circles of white energy.

"God damn it, why the fuck did he have to nail our necks as well!? When I get my hands on him I-"

The bindings must not have been very comfortable if the way the short one was swearing was any indication.

Then the one with the fedora caught sight of them and alerted his fellow captives.

"..."

"..."

"I uh, don't suppose you would be kind enough to let us out would you?" he asked with as much politeness as he could spare to a devil.

"Idiot, these are holy bindings. What the hell are a bunch of filthy devils going to do?"

"Well its not like we can do anything ourselves is it midget?"

"Will you two stop arguing!?"

The busty one joined the fray as they descended into an incomprehensible argument seemingly forgetting the devils in the background.

Said devils could do no more than sweatdrop at the display of childish immaturity unfolding before them.

"Lets... just move along." the crimson haired king said awkwardly as they shuffled round the arguing trio and slipped into the church.

The inside of the church was surprisingly orderly given the current state of things outside, rows of pews were lined up to face an altar where someone would preach. The altar however was in pieces, as though something had impacted the front with enough force to completely obliterate the wooden box into foot long wooden splinters.

"I can smell Issei-senpai... from there." Koneko spoke up and pointed towards the hidden stairwell that was peeking out from the wreckage.

They walked down into the cobbled passage and came to a set of doors. A disjointed laugh suddenly echoed through the opened crack, a laugh that they recognized as Issei's. Haltingly, Rias placed a hand on the door and pushed, her peerage following closely behind.

Bodies lined the wall, like demented white marionettes that had had their strings cut they were scattered around having evidently been pummelled with enough force to crack the walls on which they lay against. Koneko wrinkled her nose, the stench of blood amplified by her sensitive nose. And there, at the centre of the far end of the room was Issei, the nuns body laid out beside him as he lay with his back against the extraction machine muttering to himself.

"Oh well, it's not like I'm gonna be welcomed back after this stunt." his voice bounced across to them hollowly. Rias did not like that.

Fortunately, Akeno thought the same.

"Really, to think you had such a low opinion of us. I'm offended Issei." she called out to him causing his head to snap up and stare at them in shock.

* * *

For a moment all he could was stare at them, unsure of what to do. Without warning, Rias broke away from the others and began to walk over to him.

"Buchou?" he managed to get out tentatively as he pushed himself to his feet.

"Issei," she started before looking at the nun, "Is she...?"

Suddenly his eyes widened. 'Devils, of course!' he thought, mind racing with sudden hope.

"Buchou please reincarnate her!" he sank to his knees "I'll pay any price you want just please bring her back." he begged unashamedly for the life of the girl he'd grown to cherish over the past month.

She placed a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see her smiling at him.

"I'll bring her back Issei." she promised and took a crimson bishop from her uniform pocket to punctuate her words.

Relief flooded through him and he all but collapsed where he knelt only to feel something grab his arms from both sides.

"Easy there Issei, you've done enough here." Kiba's voice appeared at his left while Koneko supported his other arm, the short girl making the most of her rook strength.

Knowing he was in good hands, he smiled a small smile and allowed one tear, unnoticed by anyone to slide down his cheek.

* * *

Deep within the Boosted Gear, underneath layers of steel and enchantment the Great Welsh smiled as he observed his host. It had been so long since he had seen Issei this happy after Irina left.

Shifting his gargantuan head on his equally vast haunches, he closed his eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep, the Boosted Gear vanishing from Issei's hand as he did.

* * *

Hey sorry for the delay, stuff happened and my mind was being assaulted by a whole bunch of different ideas. Next chapter will be much longer hopefully.

Hopefully, I'll be putting out a new fic sometime soon.

Thanks for the continued support, read and review.


	4. Rewrite Notice

Hello everyone,

Been a long long time I know since I last touched this story and I am afraid I will have to disappoint those of you who were hoping for a new chapter of this story. But rejoice, for I have a chapter for you in the form of the first chapter of the rewrite!

Fact of the matter is, I have decided to rewrite this story from scratch due to lacking sufficient drive and plot material to continue it. The entirety of this story was basically derived from 'give Issei Dota powers' full stop. At the time it seemed like a good idea and I thought I would be able to just roll with it, but looking back now, I neglected a fairly large amount of things like proper character development/interaction and actual plot (beyond standard canon).

Thus I have decided to wipe clean the slate and try again, this time with forethought and with passion.

Constructive criticism will be appreciated.

Thank you for your continued support over the years, and I wish you a happy holiday.

Sincerely,

TMoTB


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